Geen prooi voor de sfinx - De lezer en het achttiende-eeuwse embleem

Abstract

In this article, I examine the changing emblematic genre of the eighteenth century. Once functioning as complex riddles for a learned audience, emblems came to be direct moralisations for a large audience during the Enlightenment. The textual and visual allegories which, in combination with the iconological tradition, once served as vehicle for the transfer of knowledge were replaced by different structures of meaning. This process is being studied in the Dutch emblematics of the eighteenth century, revealing various strategies used by poets to apply the literary allegory in a changing context.