Images of the Gods - Mythography in the Early Modern Period
The "survival of the pagan gods", depicting and discussing the ancient world of the gods in text and image, characterises European culture right up to the present day. Decisive epochs and contexts can be determined by how the challenging tension that these formerly central figures provoked in a fundamentally changed Christian environment was dealt with and which models of interpretation of the ancient gods were discussed. In the field of visual arts, the ancient images of the gods have provided aesthetic models since the Renaissance and could serve as symbols and personifications.
The visual "Survival of the Pagan Gods" - the title of the classic French-language study by Jean Seznec from 1940 - or the afterlife of ancient gods, as in the lesser-known dissertation title "Aus dem Nachleben antiker Göttergestalten“ by Alma Frey-Sallmann, published in 1931 - is made accessible in a new way in the "Götterbilder digital" research database presented here: it is now possible to follow the graphic changes and migrations of the images of the gods through the book world of the 16th-18th centuries. No distinction is made between mythographic, antiquarian, philological, artistic, numismatic or popular-entertainment publications and their illustrations. In addition, for key works such as Vincenzo Cartari's mythographical handbook of the 'Imagini colla sposizione degli degli degli antichi' (1556), all editions are recorded if possible. The success of Cartari's 'Imagini' was based, among other things, on the fact that they were comprehensively illustrated for the first time from the 3rd edition in 1571. By 1711, they had been reprinted and translated many times and expanded to include non-European deities.
The project is based on the exhibition "Götterbilder und Götzendiener in der Frühen Neuzeit“ („Images of Gods and Idolaters in the Early Modern Period“), which was shown in 2013 at Heidelberg University Library in cooperation with the Central Institute of Art History in Munich and can now also be viewed here as a "virtual exhibition". The database and related research will be continuously expanded over the next few years.