Even if Claude Paradin (c. 1510–1573) was born in foothills of the Jura at Cuiseaux (Bourgogne), his ambitions and skills required the humanistic hub of Lyon as the competitive ground on which to thrive. A Renaissance innovator in the area of
ekphrasis, in the preamble to his
Devises heroïques(1557), Paradin elegantly articulates the theoretical function of a manual that combines woodcut images and familial mottoes. To wit, he explains the semiotic processing of a
devise(a device or
impresa), which is worn as a badge to indicate either the allegiance to or the possession of an individual or family and associates the visual (the domain of
pictura) and the written (that of
poesis) in terms of the classical formula
ut picture poesis[as is painting, so is poetry]. Literary and visual…
912 words
Citation: Wiesmann, Marc-André. "Devises Héroïques". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 12 May 2018 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=38847, accessed 23 April 2024.]
