The soul being refined like metal in a crucible by an angel, Satan, Venus and Death; representing a test of faith. Etching by C. Murer, ca. 1600-1614.

  • Murer, Christoph, 1558-1614.
Date:
1622
Reference:
26678i
Part of:
XL Emblemata miscella nova
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view The soul being refined like metal in a crucible by an angel, Satan, Venus and Death; representing a test of faith. Etching by C. Murer, ca. 1600-1614.

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The soul being refined like metal in a crucible by an angel, Satan, Venus and Death; representing a test of faith. Etching by C. Murer, ca. 1600-1614. Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0). Source: Wellcome Collection.

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Description

In Murer's play this etching accompanies a speech about purification through martyrdom. It shows allegorically how the human soul is tested by life's tribulations. The soul is refined in an ironworks (the universe) by a team of metalworkers: a good angel ("bonus angelus"), Satan, Venus, and Death. The soul ("Anima") is placed inside a crucible ("Homo", man) and heated in the fires (Tribulations) of a brazier ("Mundus", the physical world). On the left the good angel cools the soul with sanctity by sprinkling holy water (marked "spiritus sanctus", the Holy Ghost) on to it with an aspergillum. The angel's work is countered by the evil forces on the right, who try to make it as hot (sinful) as possible: the devil at the back blows vanity and temptation ("vanitas", "tentationes") at the fire with his bellows, while Venus (a nude woman, representing the flesh, "caro"), adds a burning coal marked "cupiditates" (desires). In the background Death stands by to smash it with a hammer labelled "finis" (end). An hour-glass sits on the floor as an attribute of Death

Publication/Creation

Zurich : Johann Rudolf Wolf, 1622.

Physical description

1 print : etching.

Lettering

Fidei exploratio. CM ...

References note

For detailed information on Murer's series, see: Thea Vignau-Wilberg, 'Christoph Murer und die "XL. Emblemata miscella nova"' (Bern : Benteli Verlag, 1982)

Reference

Wellcome Collection 26678i

Notes

This series was originally intended by Murer to serve as illustration to his play 'Edessa', but he died before completing it. The play concerned the politics surrounding the Arian controversy in the fourth century Christian church. In her book (cited below), T. Vignau-Wilberg demonstrates that Murer used the story of the persecutions in Edessa of non-Arians by Arians as a cipher for the persecution of Protestants by Catholics in his contemporary Europe. However, the play was never published and the etchings were published as emblems eight years after his death, with a different text written by Johann Heinrich Rordorf, sometimes at variance with the intention of the original

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