'poppen' cards from 17th C. Amsterdam?

John Meador

Is anyone familiar with the 'poppen' cards referred to below,
after which Roemer Visscher modeled his sinnepoppen?

De zeventiende eeuw 15.1 (1999)
Themanummer Spel en spelen in de zestiende en zeventiende eeuw
- Jochen Becker, `Plaatjes en praatjes: emblemata, gespreksspelen,
conversatie en kunstgeklets', p. 118-130
Abstract - In the preface to his Sinnepoppen (1614), the Amsterdam
poet Roemer Visscher points out the social practice which forms the
basis for his publication: the practice of commenting on scenes
depicted on a kind of playing cards. These drawings, `poppen', could
be interpreted in many ways - the printed text is only one among many
possible comments.
Such a game of interpretation has its parallels in other playful
possibilities where depictions do not function as symbols of a stable
world order, but serve to invite players to demonstrate their wit, to
maintain conversation.
Conversation about works of art, ranging from witty remarks on
gallery talk to art-historical texts, confirms such an
interpretation; it more often refers to a (social) context than to
the, supposedly objective, topics represented in art. It therefore is
vital for modern interpretation not merely to offer yet another
reading of an image, but rather to discuss the conditions which allow
for such a wealth of possible interpretations.
http://www.let.uu.nl/nederlands/nlren/werkgroep17/verschenen.html

'Sinnepoppen' =(old Dutch word for emblem art)

"In the first two decades of the seventeenth century the house of the
merchant Roemer Visscher (1547-1620) on Geldersekade, Amsterdam, was
a meeting-point for the Amsterdam cultural elite. The Dutch poet
Vondel referred to the `blessed Roemer's house' as a place:
Whose floor is daily trod, whose threshold e'en worn bare
By painters, artists, poets, by singers everywhere"
http://www.kb.nl/kb/100hoogte/hh-en/hh047-en.html

Iovis omnia plena(with Tetragrammaton) emblem #1
http://www.cs.uu.nl/people/joris/sinnepoppen/sinnepoppen.html

De zeventiende eeuw 15.1 (1999)
Themanummer Spel en spelen in de zestiende en zeventiende eeuw
- Leendert F. Groenendijk, `Kansspelen in het ethische discours van
gereformeerde theologen in de Noordelijke Nederlanden', p. 74-85
Abstract - This paper describes the attitudes of 17th-century Dutch
Reformed theologians towards popular games like card-playing, dicing,
and tricktrack. Within Reformed clerical leadership it is possible to
distinguish a precise and a liberal position in ethical matters. The
precise moralists stressed the unlawfulness of all games of chance.
In their opinion, players taking advantage of fate were abusing God's
name and providence, which was a transgression of divine commandment.
The conclusiveness of their biblicist evidence, however, was negated
by a growing number of less strict theologians, who regarded games of
chance as `indifferent' actions, not involving divine providence.
They merely stressed the moral duty of observing moderation and
common decency when engaging in games of chance.
http://www.let.uu.nl/nederlands/nlren/werkgroep17/verschenen.html

"Another writer says, that in 1622 there were centres of Rosicrucians
in Amsterdam and in The Hague, the members of which belonged to the
distinguished classes, meeting in a palace. He also mentioned centres
in Neurenberg, Erfurt, Hamburg, Dantzig, Mantua and Venice....both
Roemer Visscher and Torrentius belonged to the central figures in the
Rosicrucian Order and it is very likely that Torrentius had adopted
his progressive ideas from Roemer Visscher, who was much older. "
http://home.planet.nl/~amorc.nl/enhistne.html

"The political RCism that I detect in my book on the Baltic adds to
the evidence that Protestant Chiliasm in Rosicrucian form was an
integral part of the Thirty Years war. When peace came Rosicrucianism
seems to have become more private and esoteric with the radical RC-
preachers (Adam Haselmayer, Philip Ziegler, Matthias Pfennig,
Torrentius and others) being replaced by initiates geared toward
ideas of multiplying microcosms of Divine monarchy and other types of
elitism, inspired by the secrecy of alchemy, and not least Michael
Maier's Themis Aurea-view of the RCs as a secret continuation of
esoteric schools since antiquity. Radical Paracelsianism was replaced
by aristocratic and monarchical restorationism in masonic form. This
is partly studied in a new book by Marsha Keith Schuchard, to be
called "Restoring the Temple of Vision - Stuart Freemasonry"."
Subject: ACADEMY : Rose Cross
Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2000
From: Susanna Åkerman
http://www.levity.com/alchemy/a-archive_feb00.html

biography:
Rehorst, A.J.:_Torrentius_,1939. Rotterdam.

see also:
http://216.239.57.104/search?
q=cache:XTgLyvfdQVAJ:www.rosicrucian.org/publications/digest/2002/Vol8
0_num01.pdf+Torrentius+rosicrucian&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

http://www.fjmselier601.freeler.nl/Hoofdstukken/Drebbel.htm

"...Charles I, who admired and collected his pictures, interceded on
his behalf with Stadholder Frederik Hendrik. Through the latter's
good offices Torrentius was released from prison in 1630 and
travelled to London bearing a few of his paintings, including, it
seems, the allegory on Temperance; Charles's brand on the panel's
verso places it firmly in his collection. It was anticipated that
Torrentius would paint captivating pictures for the English court,
but apparently he produced very little in England before returning to
Holland. "
http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/bio/t/torrenti/biograph.html
 

Kaz

john,
i am dutch and i know all these ppl you mention in your text coz of art history, but the word sinnepoppen i forgot i ever came across. thank you for this thread !
so i googled it, and its an old dutch word.
there is a complete thesis about the construction of them, it is in dutch.
and for the ones that can read (old) dutch, here is a fantastic website that gives the poems with the cards, but all that cant read it, you can still enjoy all the sinnepoppen.

anyone wanting translation, just ask, ill do my best.
 

John Meador

Roemer Visscher & Dutch R+C emblems

Hi Kaz,
I tried my hand at translating this. Your corrections would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
-John

"...Roemer Visscher (1547-1620) a well known and influential Dutch poet that inspired others, Constantijn-Huygens and Bredero with his poetry. He was a well-to-do grain merchant and a marked humanist that gave his daughters, Anna, Geertruy and Maria Tesselschade, a very 'out‘going’ education.... Roemer Visscher’s dwellings at the Amsterdam Geldersekade functioned as an apt point for artists and scholars..... Many from the circles around Roemer Visscher were also members of the Amsterdam shipping company Sweet Briar ‘De Eglantier’ ..."

"...a bearer of wheat to market. At that time, says Rehorst, <<Rehorst, A.J., 1939 _Torrentius_. Rotterdam, W.L. en J. Brusse.>> that was also a name for rozenkruiserbroeder and he indicates further that the house of Roemer Visscher had a front stone with a wheat bearer."

"Visscher, much older then he, praised around 1610 the then still young Amsterdam Torrentius, according to the supposition of Rehorst. He led in that period the shipping company Sweet Briar ‘d’Eglantier’ with a hageroos as blazen (sign). "

"In 1614, the year in which the Fama Fraternitatis appeared in Dutch translation and in which Torrentius later on discovered still life, appeared Roemer Visscher's Sinnepoppen. It contains many aphorisms after the manner in which the Fama had been written and Rehorst<<1939>> guessed that Roemer Visscher had seen the translation."

"... Rehorst names in this connection also a derision picture with supporting text, now found on the realm picture cabinet (Rijksprentenkabinet) in Amsterdam<<a picture by Adriaen van der Venne>> Also, that derision picture will implicate some of the surrounding circle of Roemer Visscher and the shipping company cherry room<<Sweet Briar>> ‘De Eglantier’ the rosicrucian thinking there and on the connection between Roemer Visscher and Torrentius. The picture portrays a kunstenaars- company as ridiculous and shows according to the accompanying text a meeting in the ‘overdaedig Huys’ where a a meeting takes place of the ‘brotherhood of ‘the red cross’ (in Rehorst 1939: 190 e.v.) The represented faces do, according to Rehorst, remind us of of Torrentius, Roemer Visscher, Hooft, Vondel, Rodenburgh and Tesselschade. The text also gives indications in that direction. On the ground architectural instruments lie which are considered as symbols of vrijdenkerij On the picture also stand symbols of the oriental cross on the sleeve of whom can be meant as Roemer Visscher and Torrentius. On the picture ‘Roemer Visscher’ blesses a book (Fama?)"
http://www.fjmselier601.freeler.nl/Hoofdstukken/VOOR EN ACHTER DE COULIS.htm
<<my translation from the Dutch>>