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Temperamental!: Prints in the Collection of Bryn Mawr College

After Paul Delaroche (French, 1797-1856), Napoleon Bonaparte (1870-75), after 1838 painting. Engraving; Gift of Abby A. K. Turner Van Pelt Grimscom, Class of 1952, Katherine Drexel Van Pelt Beaver, and Charles B. P. Van Pelt, VP.786.

Dressed in military costume and with a sword at his hip, Napoleon poses confidently in the comfort of his study. Napoleon was known for his choleric nature, yet like Suyderhoef’s peasant above right, he also rests his right hand inside the opening of his jacket. This detail may appear odd, but it can be explained by the subject's social class. In depictions of peasants, this phlegmatic gesture was used to signify laziness. However, in depictions of the ruling class, the same gesture adopts the positive associations of temperance, leisure, and calm. Used in a depiction of Napoleon, the gesture may also be an ironic allusion to the subject's relatively low birth.

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1. After Paul Delaroche (French, 1797-1856), Napoleon Bonaparte (1870-75), after 1838 painting. Engraving; Gift of Abby A. K. Turner Van Pelt Grimscom, Class of 1952, Katherine Drexel Van Pelt Beaver, and Charles B. P. Van Pelt, VP.786. Dressed in military costume and with a sword at his hip, Napoleon poses confidently in the comfort of his study. Napoleon was known for his choleric nature, yet like Suyderhoef’s peasant above right, he also rests his right hand inside the opening of his jacket. This detail may appear odd, but it can be explained by the subject's social class. In depictions of peasants, this phlegmatic gesture was used to signify laziness. However, in depictions of the ruling class, the same gesture adopts the positive associations of temperance, leisure, and calm. Used in a depiction of Napoleon, the gesture may also be an ironic allusion to the subject's relatively low birth.
2. Alex Katz (American, b. 1927), Jessica (1994)published by the Print Club of New York, Inc. 3-color woodcut on Hosho paper, edition 79/200, signed in pencil, Gift of Jacqueline Koldin Levine (Class of 1946) and Howard H. Levine, 2012.27.508.
5. Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), St. Christopher Facing Left (1521). Engraving; monogram in plate; Gift of Eleanor May Morris, Class of 1941, MA 1970, in honor of Carol Biba, Head of Public Relations, Bryn Mawr College, 1950-1972; 2007.9.3.
6. Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), The Men's Bath House (late 16th century?) restrike of 1496-1497 original block. Woodcut on laid paper; monogram in plate; Gift of Howard L. Gray, Professor of History, 1915-1940; 1946.26
7. Albert Alexander Paul Rouffio (French, 1855-1911), Hérodias (c. 1878), after 1875 painting. Etching; signed in plate; Gift of Abby A. K. Turner Van Pelt Grimscom, Class of 1952, Katherine Drexel Van Pelt Beaver, and Charles B. P. Van Pelt; VP.346 While Symbolist artists of this period tend to focus on Salomé’s role in the death of John the Baptist, it was her mother Hérodias who ordered his beheading after he criticized her marriage to Herod. These artists, including Odilon Redon, Gustave Moreau, and Aubrey Beardsley, prefer to romanticize the dangerous but feminine allure of Salomé’s dance, rather than her mother’s more masculine, murderous rage as characteristic of the femme fatale. Rouffio, however, like Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) in his novella Hérodias (1877), shifts attention from the youthful daughter to Hérodias herself. His Hérodias reclines seductively, clutching her marital pillow and stroking the hair of the beheaded victim—an unnervingly calm, yet vengeful choleric. He discovers room for Hérodias to retain her femininity and depicts her as the femme fatale of this story.
8. Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471-1528), The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (1511). Woodcut, published as plate 3/16 in Apocalypsis cum figuris (Latin edition, 1511, of The Apocalypse, 1497/1498), initialed in plate, Gift of Marcus Stanley, 2012.15.1

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Checklist of the Exhibition 64 structured_gallery 2020-08-17T20:31:29+00:00
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Checklist of Rare Books in the Exhibition
- Robert Burton (English, 1577–1640) The Anatomy of Melancholy: What it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptomes, prognostickes & seuerall cures of it. In three partitions, with their severall sections, members & sub-sections. Philosophically, medicinally, historicallly, opened & cut vp. Printed in English Oxford: Printed for Henry Cripps, 1638, fifth edition
- Johann Caspar Lavater (German, 1741–1801) Physiognomy, or, The corresponding analogy between the conformation of the features, and the ruling passions of the mind. Printed in English London: Printed for H.D. Symonds, not before 1790
- Johann Caspar Lavater (German, 1741–1801) The Pocket Lavater, or, The Science of Physiognomy: To which is added, An inquiry into the analogy existing between brute and human physiognomy, from the Italian of Porta. Printed in English Hartford: Andrus & Judd, 1832
- Charles Le Brun (French, 1619–1690) Expressions des Passions de L’Ame. Printed in French Paris, 1727
- Cesare Ripa (Italian, 1560–1645) Iconologia di Cesare Ripa Perugino, caure. De’Sti. Mauritio e Lazzaro: Nella quale si descriuono diuerse imagini di virtù, vitij, affetti, passioni humane, arti, discipline, humori, elementi, corpi celesti, prouincie d’Italia, fiumi, tutte le parti del mundo, ed altere infinite materie: ... Printed in Italian Siena: Appresso gli geredi di Matteo Florimi, 1613 Purchased with Seymour Adelman fund
- Cesare Ripa (Italian, 1560–1645) Iconologia di Cesare Ripa: Divisa in tre libri, ne I quali si quali si esprimono varie imagini di virtù, vitij, affetti, passioni humane, arti, discipline, humori, elementi, corpi celesti, prouincie d’Italia, fiumi, & altire materie infinite vtili ad ogni stato di persone. Printed in Italian Venice: C. Tomasini, 1645
- Hartmann Schedel (German, 1440– 1514) Liber Chronicarum (Nuremberg Chronicle). Printed in Latin Nuremberg: Anton Koberger, 1493. Deposit of Phyllis Goodhart Gordon (BMC 1935)
- Otto van Veen (Dutch, 1556–1629) Amorum emblemata, figuris aeneis in cisa. Antuerpiae: Venalia apud auctorem, 1607
Personality and Class
What makes us who we are? Just as today we might turn to personality tests and horoscopes to explain our dispositions and destinies, our early modern counterparts looked to the four temperaments. Decided by the configuration of planets at birth, an excess of a bodily humor could account for one's disposition and life trajectory. One's disposition also experienced day-to-day fluctuations, influenced by the movement of the planets and changes in environment or diet. These dispositions or temperaments, in turn, could be used as explanations for a rigidly hierarchical society. Artists could attribute the hardship of beggars and peasants to their phlegmatic, and therefore idle, or choleric, and therefore dangerous, qualities. A privileged soldier's choleric violence, in contrast, could be celebrated as the strong will of Napoleon—or does the phlegmatic gesture of his idle hand undermine this reading?