De Spieghel in beeld. Hendrik Herps Spieghel der volcomenheit in Jezus en de ziel van Jan Luyken

Abstract

This article focuses on an unknown source of Jan Luyken’s religious emblem book Jezus en de ziel (1678): the Spieghel der volcomenheit by the medieval mystic Hendrik Herp. Luyken reuses the Spieghel in a literal but creative way; Biblical quotes and themes from the Spieghel are combined with new visual and textual motifs, in order to transform a medieval unillustrated tract into a visual meditation instrument for early modern Protestants. Herp’s complicated and allusive fragments are replaced by Luyken’s instructive words. By encouraging the reader to take a close look at the picturae and by offering aid to the reader’s inner imagination, these texts stimulate the identification of our daily reality as God’s world.