Re: Absalom and the Sola Busca Three of Swords

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Pen wrote:Steve, do you think there could be a connection between Absalom's death and the card? You didn't say, and I'm curious. Interestingly, the swords on the Sola Busca seem to be sheathed, and the Three of Swords with its wreath and fruit (also pierced by the swords) has (to me at least) more an air of celebration or victory than sorrow.
One Strike is Not Enough

I don't know - I haven't the image handy at the moment - isn't there five fruits at the bottom of the wreath ? If the three swords represent the three piercings of the son Absalon, five fruit could possibly reference the five wounds / piercings of the holy (and victorious) Son, Christ?

But in Christian typography where David is a type of Christ, his son Absalon is a type for Judas....

Here is the text, if anyone wants a go at it (there may be errors I have very quickly copy typed it):

Unus Non Sufficit Ictus

Accedite, quibus adhuc Divina Pietas Parentes commodat : Legite, & contremiscite. Notissima est impii in Patrem Absalon miserimi adolescentis Historia, ex Libor Reg.2.c.18. Hunc impensius adamaverat David : Monstrum, dilectionem, contumacia, & odio rependit. Abhominatus est Deus tam ingrati animi Feram : Filium que nequam, triplici lancea, corde transfixum, propriaque simul coma suspensum; perire, & ad Inferna ruere iuffit. Legite filii, & horrescire. Apostolum clamantem audite; Filii obedite Patribus vestris : sique vestigium incautis, & deviis, rationis inest, vobis metuite. Vindex Numen imminet, nisi parentes (Brutis deteriores) diligatis, colatis. Praecepit id arctius Deus 4. Decalogi mandato ; interminata etiam faeculi poena. Oculum qui subsannat Patrem, & qui despicit partum Matrum sua, effodiant eum Corvi de torrentibus : & comedant eum Filii Aquile. Has engessit Salomon minas, Prou.30.17. vidit autem nuper in vio Montis Ferrati Templum, (ut audiui) pleno Populi spectaculo sunun, contumancis Filii, cuius cadaueri, Ecclesiam ingressi Corvi, indignos oculos essoderunt.
Last edited by SteveM on 03 Nov 2010, 12:53, edited 3 times in total.

Re: Absalom and the Sola Busca Three of Swords

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Yes, there are five fruits. And did I mention that Mary Greer has suggested a biblical alternative for Polisena here...

Pen

Steve, every time I look at your post it's grown...:)

I copied out the Latin from the emblem book earlier - all I need is Time...

Steve wrote:
If the three swords represent the three piercings of the son Absalon, five fruit could possibly reference the five wounds / piercings of the holy (and victorious) Son, Christ?
Food for thought... ~o)
He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy...

Re: Absalom and the Sola Busca Three of Swords

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Pen wrote:Yes, there are five fruits. And did I mention that Mary Greer has suggested a biblical alternative for Polisena here...
Could be, there are at least two biblical characters - Nenbroto and Nabuchodenasor (which also includes a dragon...) -
I don't think there is anything that would preclude there being other biblical references too.

However, all four queens are in Boccaccio... which would make make it the more likely source of all four?

Re: Absalom and the Sola Busca Three of Swords

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SteveM wrote:
Pen wrote:Yes, there are five fruits. And did I mention that Mary Greer has suggested a biblical alternative for Polisena here...
Could be, there are at least two biblical characters - Nenbroto and Nabuchodenasor (which also includes a dragon...) -
I don't think there is anything that would preclude there being other biblical references too.

However, all four queens are in Boccaccio... which would make make it the more likely source of all four?
I think that's likely to be true.

I've copied the image/s and text below from a post of mikeh's over on the Deciphering the Sola Busca Pips thread, which is probably where I should have posted in the first place.
mikeh wrote:
Image


In Swords, we have Jesus as he is killed in the Crucifixion. A pierced and bleeding heart is a common image of Christ's sacrifice. At the crucifixion, Jesus was pierced by nails and stabbed by the spear of Longinus. In Swords we have a representation of the victimization of Christ. The victory wreath below the heart represents the victory which his sacrifice accomplished.
The thing is, the swords are sheathed, and the heart doesn't appear to be bleeding. What can this mean? The sheathed swords together with the wreath and the fruits certainly feel more like victory rather than sorrow. Perhaps as seems possible with the three of batons, it may mean victory for the victor, sorrow for the vanquished? But I must catch up with Deciphering the Sola Busca Pips - there's almost certainly an alternative interpretation.

Pen

Edited to add: Having now caught up with Deciphering the Sola Busca Pips, (a mind-blowing body of research on the part of mikeh), I think this thread is something quite else and would be better kept separate.
Last edited by Pen on 03 Nov 2010, 20:23, edited 5 times in total.
He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy...

Re: Absalom and the Sola Busca Three of Swords

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I am loving this thread. It is so thought-provoking.

I have been dying to read Hurst's notes on the SB but have not known how to access them. I still don't, even with this link. How does one go from that all inclusive page to the particular posts of Hurst's that we're interested in?

Also, thanks for pointing out the inappropriateness of "bleeding" as applied to this heart. It isn't bleeding, true. But it is wounded and pierced. So it still could be Jesus's heart at the crucifixion. But then why three swords, rather than Longinus's single one? That's another way in which what I said is inadequate. It's not enough to assume, as I was doing, that it's three simply because it is one of the Threes, in a typical representation of the three swords. When threes occur in the Aces, I already said in the other thread, it means the Trinity. I suspect that it means the Trinity here. But why would Jesus's heart be pierced by the Trinity? Well, I suppose you could say it suggests how voluntary the crucifixion was, that it was God's choice, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that the Son's heart be pierced in the crucifixion. It is the Eternal Trinity piercing the man Jesus's heart. But there is no iconographic tradition for such a concept that I know of.

I have another idea. There was a tradition of showing various saints' hearts pierced by the trinity, as three arrows entering their hearts. Fra Lippo Lippi's "St. Augustine Perceives the Trinity" is an example, at

http://www.xiamenoilpainting.com/xiamen ... inity.html

I was over-awed by the copyright restriction notice on the image, or I would have posted it here.

I gather from my brief scanning of one article ("St Augustine's Ecstasy before the Trinity in the Art of the Hermits, c. 1330-c. 1440," in Art and the Augustinian Order in Early Renaissance Italy, in Google Books), that there were several depicted in this way, such as St. Francis, I think while receiving the stigmata (as in the fruit on the wreath).

So that is my current suggestion: the heart, symbolizing the human soul at its best (the saints in ecstasy), pierced by the Trinity, a wounding that is also a victory.

Re: Absalom and the Sola Busca Three of Swords

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Pen wrote:I'm re-reading The Harlot by the side of the Road by Jonathan Kirsch. It's about the forbidden stories in the bible - the difficult ones that have tended to be swept under the carpet.
AND Miss Penelope, guess what book the library has given me to read? Yup, they actually got it in after I ordered it, and it looks very good. As you say, not quite the sensationalist junk one might expect but a really interesting treatment.