UCL Press

Chapter Title: Maarten van Heemskerckʹs use of literary sources from antiquity for his
Wonders of the World series of 1572
Chapter Author(s): Ron Spronk

Book Title: Narratives of Low Countries History and Culture

Book Subtitle: Reframing the Past
Book Editor(s): Jane Fenoulhet, Lesley Gilbert
Published by: UCL Press. (2016)
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1hd18bd.16

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125

12
Maarten van Heemskerck’s use of
literary sources from antiquity for his
Wonders of the World series of 1572

Ron Spronk

In 1572 Philips Galle engraved the Wonders of the World, after designs
by Maarten van Heemskerck. Eight engravings were part of this series. In
this chapter, I want to examine Maarten van Heemskerck’s use of literary
sources for this series, especially those from antiquity.
Celebrated monuments that were labelled as Wonders of the World
have been known since antiquity. The history of this concept is compli-
cated, however, since the canon of monuments accepted as Wonders of
the World has always been subject to change,1 even in recent studies.2
Eight distinct lists of Wonders existed in antiquity, but only the Colossus
of Rhodes was listed in all of them. The Egyptian Pyramids and the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon both scored seven out of eight, followed by
the Mausoleum in Halicarnassus, with six out of eight, and the Olympian
Zeus, which was listed five times.3 Together with these frequently listed
Wonders of the World a wide variety of other monuments were also
named as such, but less regularly. To mention just a few of many exam-
ples:  Noah’s Ark, the Library of Alexandria, the Walls of Thebes, the
Temple of Solomon, the Temple of Hadrian and the Roman Capitoline
were also on one or more of these lists.
In the fifteenth-​and sixteenth-​ century literature, two distinct
canons of the Seven Wonders remained. For his 1572 series Maarten
van Heemskerck probably used a list of Wonders which was based on
the canon compiled by the Spanish humanist Pedro Mexia (1499–​
1552), which was published in his Silva de varia lección.4 Mexia listed
the Lighthouse at Pharos, the Walls of Babylon, the Colossus of Rhodes,
the Pyramids of Egypt, the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, the Temple of
Diana at Ephesus and the Statue of Zeus in Olympia. All seven of these

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126

Wonders are part of Heemskerck’s series. Mexia not only provided a list
of the Wonders of the World, he also quoted descriptions from classical
literary sources. However, it is still unclear to what extent Mexia’s list
directly influenced Heemskerck, since the order in which the Wonders of
the World are listed by Mexia does not correspond with the numbers that
Heemskerck inscribed on his preparatory drawings. Moreover, Mexia
listed seven Wonders, while Heemskerck depicted eight. By expanding
the canon of the Wonders of the World from seven to eight monuments
Heemskerck was following an older, medieval model.5 Heemskerck added
the Colosseum in Rome to Mexia’s list. The list of the Seven Wonders of
the World did not hold a very dominant place in Mexia’s work: they are
described in two short chapters, while the entire Silva de varia lección
contains four books and 148 chapters.6
Maarten Van Heemskerck was the very first artist to design a series
of engravings of the Wonders of the World. The renewed interest in the
126

Wonders of the World relates directly to the increased appreciation of

antiquity in general during the Renaissance. Under the growing influ-
ence of humanism, the Egyptian, Greek, Roman and other ancient soci-
eties were no longer regarded as mere pagan communities, but as the
predecessors of Christian history. The Wonders of the ancient world illus-
trated and celebrated the achievements of mankind, independent from
the Christian deity.
Four of Heemskerck’s design drawings for these engravings still
exist today, and are divided between the Courtauld Institute in London
and the Louvre in Paris.7 These drawings played a crucial role in the
highly efficient working procedure in Heemskerck’s print production.
In his design drawings, Heemskerck prepared every individual line that
was to be engraved, which enabled Galle to work quickly and efficiently.
Indentations on the back of the paper reveal that the lines of the drawings
were transferred onto the copper plate by means of tracing. By engaging
professional engravers to cut the plates after his designs, Heemskerck
organized a division of labour that facilitated the enormous output of his
shop. The design drawings differ strongly in function and in character
from Heemskerck’s sketches after nature.
Heemskerck was not able to observe any of the seven traditional
Wonders of the World himself, but during his stay in Rome from 1532
to 1536 he did see and draw the Colosseum in Rome, which he added
to his subjects. For his depiction of the others, he based his series on
the descriptions in sources from ancient authors, such as the Histories
by Herodotus, the Description of Greece by Pausanias, the Geography by
Strabo, the Natural History by Pliny, the Library of History by Diodorus

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127

Siculus and the Epigrams of Martial.8 Even in the case of the Egyptian
Pyramids, for which contemporary literary and pictorial descriptions
were available to Heemskerck, he preferred to base his designs on the
ancient sources.
In the Netherlands, these literary sources in Greek and Latin
were studied meticulously and frequently in the Rederijkerskamers,
the Chambers of Rhetoric. As illustrated in a number of studies of Ilja
Veldman on this subject, Maarten van Heemskerck had very close contact
with several humanists in Haarlem. He collaborated closely with Dirck
Volkertszoon Coornhert, who engraved a large number of prints after
Heemskerck’s design, and Hadrianus Junius, who wrote a large number of
captions for Heemskerck’s prints. Heemskerck most probably was a mem-
ber of one of these organizations, the chamber of the Wijngaardranken,
the Shoots of the Vineyard, in Haarlem. As Veldman has pointed out, one
of the devices of the chamber of the Wijngaardranken was most likely
produced by Coornhert after Heemskerck’s design.9
Like many other prints from the sixteenth century, the series of the
eight Wonders of the World served an edifying purpose. The narratives
must have been very appealing to the cameristen, the members of the
Chambers of Rhetoric, and other literati and artists. These engravings
instructed the beholder and, moreover, the prints enabled the behold-
ers to demonstrate their erudition. An important innovation which was
instigated by the market had taken place by the 1550s. According to Peter
Parshall, the publishing houses succeeded in converting the print ‘into
an important arena for humanist literary invention, such that putting
together a print collection could be a useful exercise in moral rhetoric’.10
The captions for the series are by the versatile humanist scholar
Hadrianus Junius, and are written in a rather complicated Latin. The
verses often allude clearly to the ancient literary sources, and invite
games of erudite connoisseurship: since the names of the ancient authors
were not included in the captions, but other directly related information
was, it was up to the beholder to recognize the sources. In the intellectual
culture of the Rederijkers, such riddles and mind games were common: a
rebus was even part of the device for the chamber of the Wijngaardranken,
which reads ‘Deur der druiven’s soetheit rapen wij vreugdevol spel.’11
I will illustrate the use of literary sources by Maarten van
Heemskerck and Hadrianus Junius in discussing two individual Wonders
of the World, the Egyptian Pyramids and the Colosseum in Rome.
The print of the Egyptian Pyramids measures, like the other engrav-
ings in the series, 214  × 260  mm. It is entitled:  ‘Piramides Aegypti’
and it is signed at the lower left:  ‘P Galle Fecit’ (with the ‘P’ and ‘G’

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128

monogrammed) and ‘Martinus Heemskerck Inuentor’.12 The caption by

Hadrianus Junius reads, in translation:

Lofty pyramids, miracles built by the pharaohs, Massive struc-

tures rising in steps, sepulchral monuments, Built and then
seized in the gaze of cruel enduring Hyperion, near the borders
of Memphis.13

The Egyptian Pyramids were the only Wonder of the World, forming
part of the canon in antiquity, which still existed during Heemskerck’s
lifetime. The Pyramids were described in several contemporary sources
that were available to Heemskerck,14 and he had actually seen and
drawn obelisks and the small pyramid of Cestus in Rome.15 Nevertheless
Heemskerck chose to depict very different structures, based on descrip-
tions from antiquity, in this case Herodotus, and, especially, Strabo and
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Pliny. Heemskerck combined these early descriptions with classical

structures that he had seen in Rome, and with structures formed in his
own imagination.
The relief sculpture ornamenting the base of Heemskerck’s pyra-
mid probably derives from the Greek author Herodotus, who lived in the
fifth century BC. Herodotus gave elaborate descriptions of the Egyptian
Pyramids and their building process in his Histories. On the Large
Pyramid of Cheops he wrote that, ‘It is built of polished stone, and is cov-
ered with carvings of animals.’16 His countryman Strabo, who lived from
63 BC to c. 21 AD, also described the Egyptian Pyramids in his Geography.
In his descriptions Strabo included the ancient fable that Heemskerck has
depicted in the left foreground. Strabo wrote:

[O]‌n it are numerous pyramids . . . and two of these are even num-
bered among the Seven Wonders of the World . . .. [F]arther on, at
a greater height of the hill, is the third, which is much smaller than
the two. . . . It is called the ‘Tomb of the Courtesan’ . . .. They tell the
fabulous story that, when the courtesan Rhodopis was bathing, an
eagle snatched one of her sandals from her maid and carried it to
Memphis; and while the king was administrating justice in the open
air, the eagle, when it arrived over his head, flung the sandal into his
lap; and the king, stirred both by the beautiful shape of the sandal
and by the strangeness of the occurrence, sent men in all directions
into the country in quest of the woman who wore the sandal . . . she
was brought up to Memphis, became the wife of the king, and when
she died she was honored with the above mentioned tomb.17

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129

The Roman author Pliny the Elder, who lived from 23 to 79 AD, described
a number of Egyptian Pyramids in his Natural History and contemplated
their enigmatic building process. Pliny also addressed the ancient
prototype of the modern fairy tale of Cinderella:

Such are the wonders of the pyramids . . . the smallest but most
greatly admired of these pyramids was built by Rhodopis, a mere
prostitute. She was once the fellow slave and concubine of Aesop,
the wise man who composed the Fables; and our amazement is all
the greater when we reflect that such wealth was acquired through
prostitution.18

The prominent depiction of the obelisks and hieroglyphs, which

Heemskerck had seen and drawn in Rome,19 can be explained from the
fact that in the ancient world the word ‘pyramid’ also meant ‘obelisk’.20 It
is remarkable that although Heemskerck had several examples of actual
hieroglyphs at his disposal in his workshop, since he had sketched them
during his stay in Rome, he still chose to depict imaginary ones.
Two woodcuts from Francesco Colonna’s Hypnerotomachia
Poliphili, which was first published in Venice in 1499, might have served
as additional visual sources for this print. The first woodcut shows a
pyramidal structure with an obelisk on top. It is rather similar to the obe-
lisk on the left side of Heemskerck’s Pyramides Aegypti, and it is an indi-
cation that Heemskerck knew this book. The statue of a nymph on top
of Colonna’s obelisk, whose clothes moved freely in the wind, compares
well with Heemskerck’s figure with the burning torch on his obelisk.21
A second illustration from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili that might be
related to Heemskerck’s Pyramids depicts an obelisk that rests on a base
and four sphinx-​like figures, like the left obelisk in the Heemskerck.
However, Heemskerck sketched such an obelisk at Rome,22 so it remains
as yet unclear to what extent this more contemporary source might have
influenced him. Colonna’s work also provided realistic examples of hiero-
glyphs, but, again, Heemskerck depicted imaginary ones instead.
The second print that I would like to discuss is the Colosseum in Rome,
which is the last in the series. This engraving is entitled: ‘Amphitheatrum’
and signed:  ‘Martinus Heemskerck Inventor’. The construction of the
Colosseum was started c. 70 AD, under Emperor Vespasian, whom
Heemskerck has depicted in the right foreground. It owes its name to the
Colossus of Nero that stood next to it, and which was later transformed
into a statue of a sun-​god. The Roman Colosseum is the only monument
in Heemskerck’s series that he had actually seen for himself. During his

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stay in Rome in the 1530s Heemskerck drew the Colosseum several times,
and he depicted the Colosseum in the background of his Self Portrait of
1553, a painting now in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.
The Colosseum in Rome is usually not included in the Wonders of
the World series, but it was labelled as such by Marcus Valerius Martial, a
first-​century AD Roman poet who was born in Bilbilis in Spain. It is to this
poet that Hadrianus Junius referred in his caption. The rather enigmatic
caption reads:

The poet, of whose origin Bilbilis boasts, added to these wonders

Caesar’s sacred amphitheatre. The massive structure, imitating the
circular appearance of the world, entertained the people by provid-
ing spectacles and games.23

By giving only a hint of who this poet is, and by using a number of
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direct quotations from the description of Martial, Junius invites erudite

beholders to test their knowledge in identifying this author. Hadrianus
Junius was very much at home with the Epigrams of Martial since he
had worked on an edition of the Epigrams in the early 1560s, which was
published in Antwerp in 1579.24 Martial wrote in the first epigram of the
book, On the Spectacles, which was published in the year 80 to celebrate
the opening of the Colosseum by Titus:

Let not barbaric Memphis tell you of the Wonder of her Pyramids,
nor let the Assyrian boast the labours of Babylon; let not the Ionians
glorify Diana’s Temple at Ephesus . . . let not the Carians exalt the
Mausoleum to the skies in boundless praise which is based on
empty air. All labours succumb to Caesar’s Amphitheatre: this work
shall outshine them all.25

It is not yet clear if Junius had as large an influence on Heemskerck’s choice

of subject matter as the other great humanist with whom Heemskerck
worked in an earlier stage of his career, Coornhert.26 This might well be
the case, and certainly deserves more study.
Veldman observed that Heemskerck rendered the Colosseum in a
more ruinous state than it is even now, let alone in the 1530s.27 Although
Heemskerck meticulously worked out architectural details of the exte-
rior such as the Doric, Ionic and Corinthian capitals, he did not depict a
realistic image of the Colosseum. Instead, he created a pastiche of vari-
ous Roman motifs. For the rendering of Emperor Vespasian, the com-
missioner of the structure, Heemskerck used the equestrian statue of

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Marcus Aurelius that stood on the Capitoline. The colossal foot and the
relief of Remus and Romulus in the left foreground were actually seen
and sketched by Heemskerck in Rome, but not at this location.28 The two
figures on the lower right foreground seem to be taken out of the Arch
of Titus.29 The statue of Jupiter in the Colosseum is Heemskerck’s own
invention, but is probably also based on Martial. In the second epigram
of the book On the Spectacles, Martial described the Colosseum, and the
Colossus of Nero:

Here, rayed with stars, the Colossus stands tall . . .

Here, where the far seen Amphitheatre lifts its massive struc-
ture, was Nero’s domain.

Although this statue had been lost long before Heemskerck saw the
Colosseum, he depicted a similar colossal statue, one of Jupiter, in the
middle of the amphitheatre. Veldman has identified the Jupiter Granvelle
in the Villa Madama in Rome as the source for this sculpture.30 Through
this rendering of the scene as a pastiche of Roman motifs, it seems that
according to Heemskerck not just the Colosseum, but the entire Eternal
City was the Eighth Wonder of the World.

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