The Collected Prose

by Zbigniew Herbert

12René de Girardin: René Louis de Girardin (1735–1808), marquis de Vauvray, last patron of Rousseau, creator of the gardens of Ermenonville.

  13Stanisław Leszczyski: (1677–1766) King of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Duke of Lorraine and a count of the Holy Roman Empire (a rank bestowed by Emperor Frederick III).

  14De la composition…: On the composition of landscapes on terrain or on the manner of embellishing nature near dwellings, uniting utility with pleasure.

  15William Kent: (c. 1685–1748) eminent English architect, landscape architect, and furniture designer of the early 18th century.

  16the famous dandy Cobham: perhaps John Ligonier, 1st Earl Ligonier, British military officer from a Huguenot family, a leading official of the cabinet that led Britain during the Seven Years’ War. He spent his later years at Cobham Park in Surrey, where he boasted a harem of young girls.

  17William Shenstone: (1714–1763) English poet and one of the earliest practitioners of landscape gardening through the development of his estate, The Leasowes.

  18Thomson, Gessner, Young, Gray: James Thomson (1700–1748), Scottish poet and playwright, known for i.e. the lyrics of “Rule, Britannia!” Solomon Gessner (1730–1788), Swiss painter and poet; Edward Young (1681–1765), English poet, best known for Night Thoughts; Thomas Gray (1716–1771), English poet and classical scholar.

  19“Des habitants de l’heureuse Arcadie…”: Inhabitants of happy Arcady,/If your manners are noble,/Rest here, taste the sweetness/And pleasures of an innocent life…

  20“Ici repose l’homme de la Nature…”: Here rests the man of nature and truth.

  21Lesueur: Eustache Lesueur or Le Sueur (1617–1655), French artist, one of the founders of the French Academy of painting.

  22Thérèse Levasseur: chambermaid and seamstress who became Rousseau’s wife.

  23“L’avenir dira…”: the future will tell whether it wouldn’t have been better for the peace of the Earth if neither Rousseau nor I had ever existed.

  24“sous quelque épais feuillage”: under some dense greenery.

  1Malebranche: Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715) French Oratorian and rationalist philosopher whose work attempts to synthesize the thought of St. Augustine and Descartes.

  2Bosch: Hieronymus Bosch or Jeroen Anthoniszoon van Aken (1453–1516), Netherlandish painter known for the use of fantastic imagery to illustrate moral and religious ideas.

  3The Night Watch: 1642 painting by Rembrandt, a central piece of the Rijksmuseum collection.

  4Van Eyck brothers: Jan van Eyck (before 1395–1441), early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges, brother to painter Hubert van Eyck (c. 1366–1426), who worked on the Ghent altarpiece commissioned by Jodocus Vijdts, lord of Pamele, until he died, leaving it for Jan to finish.

  5“manche Erinnerungen…”: many reminiscences of the period of its flowering.

  6“Une lumiere douce…”: A soft light, a woolly and slightly drowsy atmosphere give Veere the allure of a fairy-tale town…Its quiet streets leave the visitor under a melancholy charm.

  7Fromentin: Eugène Fromentin (1820–1876) French painter and writer, author of Les Maîtres d’autrefois (1876), an influential study of early Netherlandish painting and the Northern Baroque.

  8Benjamin Constant: Henri-Benjamin Constant de Rebecque (1767–1830) Swissborn, nobleman, thinker, writer and French politician.

  9Jan Leeghwater: (1575–1650) Dutch mill builder and hydraulic engineer pivotal to land reclamation programs along the flooded coast of the Netherlands in the 17th century.

  10Prince Maurice: Maurits van Nassau (1567–1625), Prince of Orange 1618–1625, son of William the Silent. When his father was murdered in Delft in 1584, he took over as stadtholder at 16. He eventually organized the Dutch rebellion against Spain into a coherent, successful revolt.

  11Patinir: Joachim Patinir (c. 1480–1524), Flemish history and landscape painter from the area of modern Wallonia.

  12Van Coninxloo: Gillis van Coninxloo (1544–1607) painter of forest landscapes, the most famous of a large family of artists. He lived in Germany for several years to avoid religious persecution.

  13Seghers: Hercules Pieterszoon Seghers or Segers (c. 1589–c. 1638) Dutch painter and printmaker.

  14Avercamp: Hendrick Avercamp (1585–1634) Amsterdam-trained painter who in 1608 moved to Kampen. The deaf Avercamp was known as “de Stomme van Kampen” (the mute of Kampen).

  15Cuyp: Aelbert Jacobsz Cuyp (1620–1691), one of the leading Dutch landscape painters of the 17th century; the most famous of a family of painters.

  16Potter: Paulus Potter (1625–1654) Dutch painter specialized in animals, particularly cows, in landscapes. Potter died of tuberculosis, 28 years old, leaving about a hundred paintings.

  17Hobbema: Meindert Hobbema (1638–1709), perhaps the greatest landscape painter of the Dutch school after Ruysdael.

  18De Momper: Joos de Momper the Younger (1564–1635), also Josse de Momper, one of the most important Flemish landscape painters.

  19Jacob Ruysdael: (or Ruisdael) (c. 1628–1682), Dutch landscape painter.

  20Jan van Goyen: Jan Josephszoon van Goyen (1596–1656) prolific landscape painter; about twelve hundred paintings and more than one thousand drawings by him are known.

  21Huygens: Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687) prolific Dutch author and composer, Secretary to two Princes, and the father of the scientist Christiaan Huygens.

  22Esaias van de Velde: (1587–1630) landscape painter born in Amsterdam, where his Flemish Protestant father had fled in 1585; he probably studied under his father and Gillis van Coninxloo.

  1Adriaen van Ostade: (1610–1685), Dutch genre painter.

  2William Temple: Sir William Temple, 1st Baronet (1628–1699), statesman and essayist, author of Observations upon the United Provinces of the Netherlands, 1687.

  3Peter Mundy: (fl. 1600–1667), British merchant and employee of the English East India Company in Europe, India, China, and Japan. Mundy recorded the first English reference to “chaa” (tea). The Travels of Peter Mundy, in Europe and Asia, were published in five volumes from 1905–1936.

  4John Evelyn: (1620–1706) English writer, gardener, and diarist; co-founder of the Royal Society, and author of Fumifugium (or The Inconveniencie of the Aer and Smoak of London Dissipated), the first book written on the growing air pollution problem in London, and many other books.

  5Amalia van Solms: Amalia of Solms-Braunfels (1602–1675), Countess of Solms-Braunfels, was the wife of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange.

  6Jacob Jordaens: (1593–1678), Flemish Baroque painter of the Antwerp school; a convert to Protestantism, he was fined for heretical writings in Antwerp, then controlled by the Spanish.

  7Karel van Mander: (May 1548–September 2, 1606), was a Flemish-born Dutch painter and poet, who is mainly remembered as a biographer of Netherlandish artists. As an artist he played an important role in Northern Mannerism in the Netherlands.

  8Samuel van Hoogstraten: (1627–1678), painter of the Golden Age; first a pupil of his father while living at Dordrecht. On the death of Dirk van Hoogstraten, his father, he changed his residence to Amsterdam and entered the school of Rembrandt.

  9Willem van de Velde: either the Elder (c. 1611–1693) or the Younger (1633–6 April 1707), both marine painters.

  10Pieter de Hooch: (1629–1684) genre painter. He studied art in Haarlem under the landscape painter, Nicolaes Berchem and presumed to have been influenced by Vermeer. He died in 1684 in an Amsterdam insane asylum, though how he came to be there is unrecorded.

  11Frans van Mieris: the Elder (1635–1681), genre and portrait painter. The leading member of a Leiden family of painters, his sons Jan (1660–1690) and Willem (1662–1747) and his grandson Frans van Mieris the Younger (1689–1763) were also accomplished genre painters.

  12Gerard Dou: (1613–1675), Dutch Golden Age painter, whose small, highly-polished paintings are typical of the Leiden fijnschilders. He specialized in genre scenes and is noted for his trompe l’oeil paintings
and candlelit night-scenes with strong chiaroscuro.

  13Brouwer: Adriaen Brouwer (1605–1638) Flemish genre painter active in Flanders and the Dutch Republic in the seventeenth century.

  14Gerard Terborch: Gerard ter Borch (or Terburg) (1617–1681), Dutch genre painter.

  15Isaac van Ostade: (1621–1649) Dutch genre and landscape painter, brother to Adriaen.

  16Matteus van Helmont: (1623–1679), Flemish genre painter.

  17Teniers: David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690), Flemish artist, was the more celebrated son of David Teniers the Elder. His son David Teniers III and grandson David Teniers IV were also painters. His wife Anna was the daughter of Jan Brueghel the Elder.

  18Jan Steen: Jan Havickszoon Steen (c. 1626–1679) Dutch genre painter and inn-keeper.

  19Jan Lievens: (24 October 1607–4 June 1674) Dutch painter, usually associated with Rembrandt, working in a similar style.

  20Gerrit Uylenburgh: (ca. 1625–1679), Dutch art-dealer. After the scandal and bankruptcy Herbert describes, the English painter Peter Lely exerted his influence at the English court and secured Uylenburgh the post of Surveyor of the King’s Pictures.

  21van Aelst, Kalf: Willem van Aelst (1627–1683) Dutch artist who specialized in still-life painting with flowers or game; Willem Kalf (1619–1693), Dutch painter who specialized in still lifes. Later in his life, Kalf became an art dealer and appraiser.

  22Vondel: Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679) the most prominent Dutch poet and playwright of the 17th century.

  23Lastman…Metsu…: Pieter Lastman (1583–1633) painter of history pieces; his pupils included Rembrandt and Jan Lievens; Gabriel Metsu (1629–1667) painter of history paintings, genre works, and portraits.

  24Gerrit Berckheyde: (1638–1698) painter of townscapes, taught by a brother, Job Berckheyde, and by Frans Hals; drowned in a canal in Haarlem, where he was born.

  25Sorbière: Samuel de Sorbière (1615–1670), French philosopher and translator, best known for his promotion of the works of Pierre Gassendi and Thomas Hobbes; author of Relation d’un Voyage en Angleterre (Paris 1664), a cause of outrage among the English and brief arrest in France.

  26Carel Fabritius: (1622–1654) Dutch painter and one of Rembrandt’s most gifted pupils.

  27Godfried Schalcken, Adriaen van der Werff, Eglon van der Neer: Schalcken (1643–1706), genre and portrait painter, noted for his mastery in reproducing candlelight; Van der Werff (1659–1722) painter of portraits and erotic, devotional and mythological scenes; Van der Neer (1635/36–1703) painter of historical scenes, portraits of elegant people, and later of landscapes.

  28Emmanuel de Witte: (1617–1692) Dutch perspective painter, especially of church interiors.

  29Philips Wouwerman: (1619–1668) painter of hunting, landscape, and battle scenes.

  30Jan van de Capelle: (1626–1679) Dutch marine painter.

  1“galant tulip…”: from “The Sadnesse of Things, for Sapho’s Sicknesse” from Hesperides by Robert Herrick, (1591–1674).

  2Lecluse: Charles de l’Écluse, L’Escluse, or Carolus Clusius (1526–1609), Flemish doctor and pioneering botanist, and one of the most influential 16th century scientific horticulturists.

  3Jan van der Meurs: or Jan de Meurs, or Meursius, (1613–1653) son of a historian of the same name; author of Arboretum Sacrum (1642).

  4Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder: (1573–1621) patriarch of a large family of painters, including his son and his brother-in-law, floral painter Balthasar van der Ast (1593/4–1657).

  5Troels-Lund: (1879–1901) Danish historian and relative of Søren Kierkegaard.

  6Augier Ghislain de Busbecq: or Ogier G. de Busbecq (1520 or 1521–1592), writer, herbalist, and diplomat in the employ of three generations of Austrian monarchs.

  7Konrad Gesner: or Gessner (1516–1565) Swiss naturalist and bibliographer. His five-volume Historiae animalium (1551–1558) is considered the beginning of modern zoology, and the flowering plant genus Gesneria (Gesneriaceae) is named after him.

  8John Tradescant: either the Elder (c. 1570s–1638), or the Younger (1608–1662), both botanists, gardeners, and travelers, both Keeper of his Majesty’s Gardens, Vines, and Silkworms.

  9Waermondt: character in a pamphlet by Adriaen Roman called “T” Samenspraecken tusschen Waermondt ende Gaergoedt,” or Dialogues between Waermondt and Gaergoedt, Being the Continuation of the Rise and Decline of Flora (1637).

  10Shlarafia: or Schlaraffenland, German equivalent of the land of Cockaigne. A medieval mythical land of plenty, an imaginary place of where the harshness of medieval peasant life does not exist.

  11“La maladie infectueuse…”: Infectious disease tends at once to perpetuate itself and, to ensure self-perpetuation, to modify according to circumstances.

  12Henry Pot: Hendrik Gerritsz Pot (c. 1580–1657), Dutch painter. He lived and painted in Haarlem, where he was an officer of the militia.

  13Fortius: Leiden professor of botany and successor to Clusius’ chair in Leiden.

  1Pieter de Molijn: English-born Dutch Baroque painter, printmaker, and draftsman (1595–1661).

  2Douanier Rousseau: Henri Julien Félix Rousseau (1844–1910) French Naive Post-Impressionist painter; also known as Le Douanier (the customs officer) after his place of employment.

  3Kaspar van Kinschot: also Caspar van Kinschot, Dutch Neolatin poet (1622–1649), whose work was published posthumously as Caspari Kinschotii Poemata. Painted by Terborch in 1646/47.

  4noir d’ivoire: paint color, made from charred ivory waste.

  5Jean Puget de la Serre: (1600–65). Librarian of Gaston d’Orléans, novelist, and historian. His manual was published as Le secretaire de la four, Paris, 1625, as Le secretaire à la mode in 1651.

  6Die Wahlverwandschaften: Goethe’s third novel of 1809, translated as Elective Affinities.

  7Max Friedländer: (1867–1958) German art expert and art historian. Herbert quotes from Von Jan van Eyck bis Bruegel, 1916 (“From Jan van Eyck to Brueghel”).

  1Józef Czapski: (1896–1993) was a Polish artist, author, and critic, as well as an officer of the Polish Army.

  2Car je est un autre: For I is another; from a letter by Rimbaud to Paul Demeny of May 15, 1871.

  3Duyster: Willem Corneliszoon Duyster (1599–1635), painter of genre scenes and portraits, often of soldiers.

  4in summa seductor civium…: in brief, a seducer of citizens, a cheater of people, a corrupter of the youth, a defiler of women.

  5Johann Valentine Andreae: (1586–1654), German theologian, who claimed to be the author of the Chymische Hochzeit Christiani Rosencreutz anno 1459 (1616, Strasbourg, the Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz) one of three founding works of the Rosicrucians.

  6Christian van Couwenberch: also Christiaen van Couwenbergh (1604–1667), genre and history painter of the Delft school, son of a silversmith.

  7Socinians: adherents of a form of Nontrinitarianism, named for Laelius Socinus (died 1562 in Zürich) and his nephew Faustus Socinus (died 1604 in Poland). The Socinians congregated especially in Transylvania, in Poland, and in the Netherlands. They rejected the views of orthodox Christian theology on God’s omniscience, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and soteriology.

  8Bredius: Abraham Bredius (1855–1946), art scholar and collector, director of Mauritshuis and Rijksmuseum; founder of the Bredius Museum in The Hague. His authority was damaged by his faulty judgment on the authenticity of Hans van Meegren’ Vermeer forgery, De Emmausgangers.