The Departing Soul.

The Long Life of a Medieval Creation

Author(s): Moshe Barasch
Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 26, No. 52 (2005), pp. 13-28
Published by: IRSA s.c.
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MOSHE BARASCH

The Departing Soul.

The Long Life of a Medieval Creation

Few ideas are as old as that of the soul. From the dawn of same form throughout the modern world. The soul never
history people have believed that within everyone of us there became a universal ideogram of this kind.
dwells a mysterious, yet real, force that, though not visible and In fact, we are familiar with several different figures and
not tangible, turns us into the person we are; and when it motifs, very different from each other, but all representing our
leaves our body, at the moment of death, we cease to be what psyche. Each of these figures shows the soul as performing
we were. This mysterious force has been called by many a specific function or at a specific moment of its life story. In
names, the most common of them is "soul." How was the soul European art many of these figures are composite, the hetero
imagined, and how are its shape and appearance recorded in geneous parts taken from different creatures. Some of the old
works of art? In the comments Iwant to make, I shall not be est historical images of the soul come from Egypt. Best known
concerned with the iconography of the soul in general, but is the motif of a bird with large wings, often bearing a human
with a rather limited segment of this broad theme. head, usually fluttering above the dead. For the Egyptians,
Since the soul is such a common concept in all cultures however, the multitude of souls and soul figures was an explic
and all ages, it is not surprising that itwas also frequently itmatter of belief.1
imagined as a figure that can be seen in imagination. What is In Greece, too, the soul was imagined as hovering in
remarkable, however, is that in spite of itswidespread use and midair, usually as a bird. On early Greek funerary monuments
its long and unbroken history, the image of the soul was never the soul appears in such a shape. But another image gained
cast into one single, generally known and accepted form, a fig predominance in Hellenic culture; this was a winged human
ure that could be inserted, as itwere, into any context, wher figure, usually of very small size, hovering near the grave and
ever the soul has to be suggested in visual experience. The greeting mourners who came to visit the tomb. This figure,
general "validity" of an accepted image is made manifest by wearing what looks like a windblown garment, hovers in
the fact that, at least within the confines of a given culture or midair, as can be seen on lekythoi [Fig. 1] and even on stelae.
cultural tradition, it is instantly understood by broad audiences In these figures we find a feature that is characteristic of later
and is used by artists as a matter of course. Blindfolded Jus soul imagery, namely, a complete anonymity. The figure is not
tice is such an established image, understood and used in the in any way a replica or image of the dead person whom itani

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MOSHEBARASCH

*<r.--?w?i

&-.;

1) ?Attic white-ground lekythos?, fifth century, Norbert Schimmel Collection, New York.

mated. In the mythological sphere, as we know, the soul may deceased and the tomb?is the animation of the body. In that
appear as an eidolon of the deceased. The eidolon of Patroc function the soul is rarely represented. When it does appear,
los is brought up from his tumulus to show delight inHector's however, the shape it assumes has little to do with the soul
body being dragged around Troy. Sometimes, though rarely, that hovers above the grave. In these rare cases the animat
the soul appears as an eidolon also in paintings.2 In the visual ing soul is rendered either as a butterfly or a small-scale
arts, however, the predominant image is the anonymous one; human figure endowed with large butterfly wings. This type of
neither age nor sex nor any other physical feature gives even rendering the soul, though not frequent, had considerable life
a slight indication as to the kind of person the soul once force and continued for many centuries. An early but explicit
belonged to. and articulate example of such a representation is found on
An altogether different function performed by the soul?in the famous Prometheus sarcophagus in the Museo Capitolino
a sense, the very opposite of hovering above or near the at Rome [Fig. 2].3 In the center of the front wall we see Prome

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 SOUL.THELONGLIFEOF A MEDIEVAL
THEDEPARTING CREATION

theus molding human figures of clay. In Greek myth in the King James version, the "cast down" or "disquieted"
Prometheus could not infuse the animating soul into the clay soul)8 that is here visualized as a full allegorical figure.
body he had fashioned. In the sarcophagus relief this is done The images we have adduced - the bird, the tiny human
by the large figure of Minerva. She holds the soul, in the soul figure fluttering above the grave, the butterfly as an image
shape of a butterfly, above the head of the newly shaped clay of the animating soul, the regular allegorical figure as an
of the sad soul - do not exhaust the variations of soul
body [Fig. 3].4 image
A merging of the two types, the human figure and the but imagery in ancient and medieval art. One would like to under
terfly, can be seen in some images produced in late Antiquity. stand, and itmight shed light on many aspects of medieval
A wall painting in the Synagogue of Dura Europos, done in the iconography, what prevented the concept of the soul from
middle of the third century AD, illustrates this process. The becoming a unified and generally valid visual symbol. This,
mural depicts Ezekiel's vision of the Resurrection of the Dry however, is a subject for a separate study. In the present essay
Bones (Ezekiel 37:9-10). Above the dead bodies we see the we intend to trace some lines in the history of yet another
souls hovering in the air [Fig. 4]. These souls are cast in the image of the human soul in a specific moment of its existence.
shape of diminutive maidens, but they are endowed with large When a person dies, itwas believed throughout the ages,
butterfly wings. To distinguish the dead, but material, tangible the soul leaves his or her body. This event is both so fateful
bodies from the immaterial souls, the artist painted the former and so frequent that itcould not have gone unnoticed, without
in full natural colors, and the latter only in grisaille.5 careful attention being paid to it,and without being richly elab
As a human figure with large butterfly wings the soul also orated in the imagination. In fact, rituals, religious beliefs, and
survived inChristian medieval art. An interesting version of it, literary descriptions frequently deal with that crucial moment
and a further development, is found inone of the mosaics cov and what happens in it.But was the departing soul also imag
ering the cupola of the western narthex of San Marco in ined on the level of some visual experience, at least in the
Venice. In the scene of the Creation of Adam [Fig. 5], done imagination? If so, what is the shape and appearance of the
around the year 1200, God is represented as pushing the ani soul when it leaves the human body? Ishall try to show that in
mating soul against the body of the newly created man.6 The this particular moment the soul was imagined to have a differ
soul is a small human figure with oversize butterfly wings. As ent shape than all the other soul figures. In some periods,
that small human figure is nude, it does not seem to derive a rather narrowly circumscribed iconography of what happens
from the ancient Greek images of the soul at the grave. The to the soul in the moment of leaving the body, or immediately
butterfly wings, prominent in size as well as inexplicit shaping, afterwards, seems to have developed. The present essay
indicate that the model of the Prometheus sarcophagus was deals with these issues.
not altogether lost in the course of centuries.
When the medieval imagination wished to conjure up
a condition of the soul, not one of its actions, ithad still anoth II
er figure. This we can see in a famous illumination of the
Stuttgart Psalter, a ninth-century manuscript. While the precise So far as Ican see, a particular figure of the soul at the
date of the Stuttgart Psalter is still a matter of scholarly contro moment of leaving the body of the dying person did not exist
versy, according to broad agreement the illuminations go back in the imagery of the arts and cultures preceding the Middle
to a (lost) sixth century model, and that model, in turn, was Ages. This figure, Ibelieve, is an original creation of medieval
based on a fourth century manuscript.7 Here, then, we have to culture and imagination. Neither the Greek soul figure hover
do with a venerable tradition. Psalm 42, illustrated by the ing over the grave nor the Egyptian image of the soul-bird flut
image to which we now turn, asks "Why art thou cast down, tering over the deceased nor even the late antique image in
O my soul? And why art thou disquieted inme?" (verse 5). In Dura Europos represent what the medieval image attempts to
the illumination itself we see two figures [Fig. 6]. To the left, show - the soul in that particular moment. The medieval men
a heavily dressed young man, leaning on a shepherd's staff, tal picture of the departing soul tries to capture, on the level of
plays on a musical instrument. To the left, on a hill opposite the visual imagination, the moment of dying. In so doing, it does
David with the kithara, a female figure of natural proportions, not concentrate on the body, that has now become a mere
wearing a violet-coloured garment, is seated, her head sup corpse, but on the pneumatic component of man, his soul.
ported by her hand in the well-known posture of the melan Itmay be helpful for our discussion to start with an articu
cholic. Behind her head an inscription, written in large letters, late example, a rather unusual medieval representation of the
reads ANIMA. It is the sad soul of verse 5 of the 42nd Psalm (or departing soul. While the work is in some respects out of the

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MOSHEBARASCH

* **<-?
?t&&'v?**???%??$?' ^ '^ 'v -*?&-, *~r^**%trtmi?i$?i?mr?

i?mmmmtmMMmsm?M9^

iK>s* ..'?>' ~*4

'

^!.w/'^'
r^r

'^c

2) ?Prometheus Sarcophagus?, Capitoline Museum, Rome.

ordinary, it is typical in showing both the characteristics of the The other characteristic of the particular figure of the soul
figure representing the departing soul and the primary context departing from the dying individual's body is not as instantly
inwhich it is imagined. A Romanesque relief in Externsteine manifest. It is the anonymity of the soul's appearance.
representing the Crucifixion, carved about AD 1115, shows Because of the poor preservation of the Externsteine relief it is
this central scene of Christian iconography with an unusual difficult to discuss the second characteristic as regards this
addition: on top of the dying Christ's head we see his depart work. An illuminating example, close in time and place to the
ing soul as it is received into the hands of God the Father [Fig. relief, is found in a famous manuscript, now in the Escorial.10
7].9 The small figure that represents Christ's departing soul is Inone illumination [Fig. 8] in this manuscript the story of Dives
not well preserved, and some details cannot be made out and Lazarus is represented in three registers. In the upper reg
clearly. So far as we can see, however, itdisplays the two main ister the actual parable, as told in the Gospel, is represented;
characteristics of the imagined figure of the departing soul, in the middle register the soul of Lazarus is seen resting in the
and in this respect it is typical of the many other representa ample bosom of Abraham; in the lowest register, finally, two
tions of the same figure inmedieval art. devils are seen grasping the soul of Dives, which is then pun
One characteristic is obvious at first glance, and little ished in hell. In the present context two points should be
needs to be said to show that it is common to the many ren stressed. First, the soul figures of Lazarus and Dives are clear
derings. This feature is the small size of the soul figures. Since ly set apart from the live, or "actual," figures of both men.
they are always shown next to other figures, live ones, and While the "real" Dives and Lazarus are both bearded, their
since the body of the dying person from which the soul is souls are not. Secondly, the two soul figures do not differ from
departing is also seen, the difference in dimensions is obvi each other. Ifwe could detach the soul figures from their con
ous. In some works of medieval art the little figure of the text in the composition and strip them of other general charac
departing soul is envisioned as an infant, sometimes swad teristics (such as colour), one would not be able to say which
dled in white cloth. In other renderings, it is imagined as is Lazarus's soul and which is Dives's.
a nude figure of an adolescent, but in a tiny size. We shall Underlying these images is the assumption, however
come back to these images. Here it is enough to say that the vague and implicit, that all souls look alike, and that in appear
smallness is a characteristic of all these soul figures. It can ance one soul cannot be distinguished from another. This idea,
also be seen in the unusual case in the Externsteine relief. either consciously held or subconsciously implied, persisted for

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 DEPARTING SOUL. THE LONG LIFE OF A MEDIEVAL CREATION
_THE

centuries with undiminished vigour. A late example is instruc

tive. When in a fourteenth-century representation of the Cruci
fixion an Italian artist tried to visually distinguish the soul of the
* good thief from that of the bad one, he had no physiognomic
<t^? J formula or model for his task in his repository of motifs and
forms. To show the distinction, he used the time honoured gen
V
V ?iS?* eral symbolic significance of colour, painting the good thief's
soul in bright, that of the bad one in dark shades. Inaddition he
endowed the soul of the good thief with underdrawers while
leaving that of the bad one completely naked.11 Inmedieval art
and imagination, then, there were no means of showing that the
departing soul was that of a specific individual.
In this respect, medieval imagery radically differs from at
least one strand of ancient imagination. Greek literature often,
though certainly not always, described the appearance of an
individual's soul, especially after the person's death, by the
term eidolon. Whatever the precise definition, the eidolon
designates the soul after it has left the body.13 At least in
Homer, then, the term eidolon refers only to the soul of the
dead.14 Thus Patroclus complains to Achilles that the "eidola
of those who have been worn out" prevent him from entering
the gates of Hades (///., XXIII,72; Od., Xl,476; XXIV,14). Ina sim
ilarsense the seer Theoclymenos says, after the bloody end of
the suitors, that he sees the doorway of the court filled with
eidola (Od., XX,335). In these passages, as in some others,
the term eidolon is quite close to what we mean today by soul.
The visual appearance of the eidolon is also quite close to
that of the person it animated before it left his or her body.
When Apollo took Aeneas away to a temple to be healed after
a fight against Diomedes, "he made an eidolon like Aeneas
himself" (///., V, 450). Athena sent Penelope an eidolon which
she made like Iphthime (Od., IV,796). An eidolon, it turns out,
is a precise image of the person whom it represents. So simi
lar is the eidolon to the real person that itmay be mistaken for
the human being as still alive. When Patroclus departs,
Achilles tries to embrace him, but Patroclus's psyche vanish
es. Only then does Achilles realize that what he saw was
Patroclus's "psyche and eidolon", and adds that "itwas won
v?_J drous like him" (///., XXIII, 104-107).
One of the original medieval creations was to envisage the
soul that has just left the body in the shape of a new born
baby. Inabout the tenth century the image of the infant, usual
ly swaddled in cloth, gains certain popularity as a figure of the
departing soul. Such a figure is frequently seen in death
scenes where the soul leaving the body is being received by
an angel. Perhaps this motif is depicted most frequently in rep
resentations of the Death of the Virgin.
3) ?Prometheus Sarcophagus? (detail of Fig. 2), Capitoline A good example is an Ottoman manuscript from
Museum, Rome. Reichenau, now inWolfenb?ttel.15 The last miniature in the

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MOSHEBARASCH

4) ?Resurrection of the Dry Bones?, detail, Dura Europos.

5) ?Creation of Adam?, detail of the Creation cupola, San

Marco, Venice, c. 1200.

manuscript, a fullpage illumination, shows the death of the Vir

gin [Fig. 9]. Christ, standing behind the bier, holds in his
hands the soul of the Virgin in the form of a baby, and is about
to give it to one of the angels swooping down with covered
hands to receive it.The motif was early recognized as derived become vampires, or have an inferior position in the afterlife.
from Byzantium, but in the Middle Ages italso spread through In various contexts they became dangerous ghosts, inspiring
out the western world. In Byzantine art the image was devel fear and anxiety in the living.17 InChristian imagery, the affini
oped even further. On a genuine Byzantine ivory plaque on the ty between the soul and the newborn infant carries a meaning
cover of the Reichenau manuscript inWolfenb?ttel, the motif totally opposed to that widely held in the pagan world of Antiq
even appears twice [Fig. 10].16 Here Christ receives the Vir uity. It is the souls of saints and the just that are imagined as
gin's soul just as it leaves the body, and then hands it to an infant. The image of the newborn does not stand for some
angel who, his hands covered, carries it to heaven. On both body who has died prematurely, it is rather an emblem of com
occasions the soul is an infant swaddled in cloth. plete innocence. The just who come to rest in Abraham's
Imagining the soul as a newborn infant has a long history bosom are all imagined as infants.18
in religious beliefs. Throughout that history ambiguities and The problems raised by the meaning of the infant's image
contrasts prevailed. In the ancient world itwas widely believed indifferent periods or cultures lie beyond the scope of the pre
that those who died an untimely death, particularly infants and sent discussion. What interests us here is that the infant is
young children, had a special, and rather dubious, status after a form of the anonymity of the soul inmedieval imagination.
death. They have been thought to roam about as revenants, to Often we can easily compare the dying person whom the soul

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 THEDEPARTING
SOUL THELONGLIFEOF A MEDIEVAL
CREATION

6) ?Anima?, detail, Stuttgarter Psalter, Psalm 42.

is just leaving with the soul itself that appears as an infant. The
figures of the dying?such as the Virgin, martyrs, etc.?are all
adults, often quite old. Their souls, however, are all infants. So
far as Iknow, in depicting these scenes medieval artists never
made an attempt to construct even a very general resem
blance between the dying and his or her soul.
Moreover, not even different types of souls are visibly dis
tinguished from each other. The spectator looking at
a medieval representation of a death scene cannot tell
whether the soul leaving the body is that of a just person or
a sinner. The spectator will have to look at the dying one and
mainly at the messengers (angels or demons) grasping the
soul, not at the soul herself. This is particularly obvious inview
of the fact that medieval artists had an easily available model 7) ?Crucifixion?, relief of Externsteine near Horn in
comparable to the departing soul. In representations of the Teutoburger Forest, c. 1115.
healing of the possessed?a subject of great popularity in
medieval iconography?the demon is shown as leaving the
healed ina way very similar to that inwhich the soul leaves the
body, namely, as a small creature often emerging from the
mouth. Incontrast to the departing soul, however, the demons was rendered in the visual arts. One of these trends was for
are clearly marked as evil creatures: their colour is dark, their mulated in the doctrine that modern scholars have termed
wings distorted, their hair spiky, and sometimes their feet are Monopsychism. Averroism, for example, taught, or was so
claws. That medieval artists did not similarly mark the depart understood, that there is only one Supreme Soul, or one "Rea
ing souls may well derive from a general concept of the soul son". The individual's soul participates in this universal Rea
as anonymous. son, and after the person's death itcontinues its life as part of
Some trends in the intellectual world of the Middle Ages the universal soul.
may explain, or at least shed light on, the belief in the soul's Another theory, widespread in medieval thought, has it
anonymity, and may thus suggest reasons for the way the soul that God created only one soul, the soul of Adam. Each indi

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MOSHEBARASCH

vidual soul is only a small slice of the soul of our first ancestor;
they are cut down and made to fit our peculiar bodies.19 The
immortality of the individual soul, it seems to follow, is imag
ined as a returning of the anima, after it has left the body at
death, to its origin, that is, to Adam's universal soul. Both the
doctrine of Monopsychism as well as the belief that all souls
are derived from Adam's must have contributed to imagining
the individual soul as anonymous.

Ill

In the late Middle Ages and particularly in the early mod

ern age we discern some significant development in the artis
tic representation of death and of the soul leaving the dying
body. The motif of the departing soul is developed beyond
what was known in the medieval centuries, and the new
themes shed light both on the general culture of the period
and on what may be hidden in the cluster of images showing
the fate of the departing soul. An iconography of the soul at
the very moment of leaving the body crystallizes in this histor
ical process. Two features particularly in the new iconography
should be stressed. One of these features is that is no longer
only the soul of the Virgin, or of a particularly venerated saint,
that is imagined as departing from the body. In the fifteenth
and early sixteenth centuries, it is the soul of every mortal
human being, including the sinful, that is now deemed worthy
of meditation, and could thus be represented in art. The halo
was removed from the dying person. The other feature in the
iconography of our subject is the focusing of interest and
attention on the fate of the soul. Who will get it, the angels of
redemption or the devils of damnation? In veiled form, the
departure of the soul from the body is fused with the age-old
motif of the judgment of the soul.
To see these developments clearly itmay perhaps be best
to begin with an image. We turn to products of that particular of Henry II.
8) ?Lazar and Dives?, Golden Evangeliar
branch of books so popular, especially in Northern Europe, in
the period between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries,
that were often titled Lart de bien vivre et bien mourir, "the art
of living well and dying well", and often for short Ars morien
di.20 The books that form this "literature" (if it is correct to enees, and on the formation of images that achieved great sig
speak here of literature) consist mainly of images, usually nificance in the cultural memory of Europe, is important.
woodcuts, rather than written text, and this character of the One of the original inventions of the art of that time in
pages bears witness to the fact that they are addressed to Northern Europe, as we have said, is the pictorial representa
broad, popular audiences to whom reading was not an every tion of the process of dying. Death as a comprehensive theme
day experience. The images are not "great" works of art, but is of course one of the oldest subjects of art, and is found in
the modest products of unknown artisans. The intention of images of all ages. However, concentrating attention on the
these illustrations is clearly proclaimed: it is to prepare people process of dying and the attempt to capture the rhythm of
for their death. The impact such images had on large audi death pangs is one of the characteristics of the period

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 DEPARTING SOUL. THE LONG LIFEOF A MEDIEVAL CREATION
_THE

10) ?Death of the Virgin?, ivory, c. 1000, Landesmuseum,

Darmstadt.

have lost the struggle for the soul, rage in anger. The dying
man's soul that here stands on top of his head is obviously
9) ?Death of the Virgin?, Pericope Book, Reichenau, c. 1000. meant to be understood as issuing from his mouth. (In other
Wolfenb?ttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek, cod. Gelf. 84.5, scenes in the same book, the soul is seen actually issuing
Aug. 20, fol. 7v. from the mouth). This soul is a tiny, youthful human being of
indefinite sex, raising its hands in prayer.
Anonymity remains an obvious characteristic of the fig
ures representing the departing soul. There is no visual
between the fourteenth and the sixteenth centuries. In the resemblance whatsoever between the dying person and the
woodcuts of the small ars moriendi books the stages of pass soul figure leaving the corpse. Both in age, physical condition,
ing from one world to the other form the basic structure of the and specific features (if there are any) the two figures are usu
images. Here we shall concentrate on the final stage of the ally strikingly different from each other. The moribund seems
drama, the final departure of the soul from the body. The to be old, the soul is a young child; the dying is often emaciat
woodcut illustrating this stage [Fig. 11] shows the moribund in ed, the soul is always unharmed, in an ideal bodily condition;
his bed, comforted by a priest. The crucified Christ appears at the dying may have a beard, or some other particular features,
the bedside, while the soul, a tiny figure, is leaving the body. the soul never has any such distinctive shapes. The discrep
Angels gently receive the soul, while frustrated demons, who ancy between the external appearance of the dying person

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MOSHEBARASCH

12) ?Epitaph of Jean Fi?vez? (d. 1425), Royal Museum,

Brussels.

One is the judgment of the soul, or the fight between angels

and devils for the soul; the other is the lifting up, or carrying
aloft, of the soul to heaven. In themselves, both motifs are, of
course, of venerable antiquity, but the way they are represent
ed in late medieval and Renaissance art is sometimes of great
originality. The medieval compositions in which these two
events are represented may obscure the history of the motifs,
yet the meaning they convey is the same as that expressed,
though in different forms, throughout many ages.
11) ?Death Scene?. From LArt de bien vivre et de bien mourir.
The first motif, the departing soul, is of great significance
in these woodcuts that were made for large popular audi
ences: it represents the struggle between angels and devils
for the soul that is just leaving the body. While the theme of the
and his soul is particularly significant because as a rule both struggle between the powers of salvation and the powers of
the artists who made these works and the audiences who damnation for an individual soul is age old, and also played an
received and used them must have considered a figure's bod interesting part in the medieval imagination, inmost medieval
ily condition and appearance as manifesting its inner nature. art it does not seem to have been portrayed in scenes of
The demons, for example, are frightening because of their dying. In the ars moriendi woodcuts, however, it often forms
deformed anatomies (e.g. the prominent vertebra of their the central part of what happens, or is presented, at the
- moment of death. The fight between angels and demons for
spines Fig. 11) or because elements of the human frame are
combined in them with parts of the bodies of beasts. The the soul is here imagined in the same direct and immediate
incongruence of the physical condition of the moribund and way, as a pushing and pulling; the angels firmly grasp the soul
the soul cannot be a matter of chance. figure, while the defeated demons rage in anger as they have
In late medieval fantasy and art the departure of the soul to let go [Fig. 11]. Note that the saved soul is a small size fig
from the body is frequently joined to, or even forms part of, ure of youthful human being (whose sex cannot be deter
two other motifs (or one motif consisting of two components). mined) and who bears no resemblance to the dying person.

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 THE DEPARTING SOUL. THE LONG LIFEOF A MEDIEVAL CREATION

i$m.

14) Giulio Romano, drawing.

The other motif, the saved soul's ascension, is usually

portrayed as an angel holding a soul, in the shape of a new
born babe, in his hand and carrying it to heaven. Another vari
ation is the soul held by the Virgin in Heaven. But even the
souls of simple mortals can be received by the Queen of Heav
&- ***l en and rest safely in her hands. An illuminating monument is
the tomb relief of Jean Fi?vez, who died in 1425 [Fig. 12].21 On
:~? ?" the lower level of the relief Jean's funeral rites are represent
ed, in the upper part the Virgin, wearing a crown, holds the
wmi soul of the deceased. Once again we see that, while the dead
* Jean Fi?vez is an old man, his soul is an infant.
Vf.frr* The small anonymous figure of the departing soul seems,
then, to be a medieval creation. The monumental foil against
which all representations of the departing soul's ascent
should be seen is the Roman apotheosis monument. The ele
vation of a dead emperor into heaven does not, of course,
carry precisely the same connotations as the ascent of the
soul. It is, however, close enough to make the respective mon
uments of the two periods comparable. What matters in the
present context is that in the Roman monuments the figure
carried aloft, usually of the same size as the other major fig
ures, is always easily identifiable as that of an individual per
son. When both the deceased and his soul are represented in
the same scene, the artist makes it immediately clear that the
13) ?Apotheosis of an Emperor?, ivory, 5th century, London, figure raised to heaven is the same as that of the deceased on
British Museum. earth. Inpagan culture this is true even for late Antiquity. A well

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15) El Greco, ?Burial of the Count Orgaz?, Toledo, Santo Tom?.

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 DEPARTING SOUL THE LONG LIFEOF A MEDIEVAL CREATION
_THE

of course, be separated from the many Renaissance represen

tations of Psyche. In the sixteenth century, "Psyche" was
understood as a mythological figure, it did not carry the con
notation of what leaves the body at the moment of death.)
In depicting (though not frequently) the departing soul,
Italian artists of the sixteenth and also of the seventeenth cen
turies did not create a unified image that, both in its final artic
ulation and in the impact ithad on artists and audiences at the
time, would be comparable to the medieval figure. Not only is
the figure more rarely represented in the Renaissance, but
variations between one depiction and another are also much
wider than they were in the Middle Ages. Nevertheless, certain
features recur in all representations of the imaginary figure,
and they bear witness to how the departing soul was under
stood. One feature is the anonymity of the soul, another its
youthfulness. But the difference between the medieval and
Renaissance representations of our subject consists not only
in the character of the symbolic figure. As compared to the
popular woodcuts, the scenes represented in the large scale
Italian paintings indicate a slight, but significant shift of subject
16) El Greco, ?Burial of the Count Orgaz? (detail of Fig. 15), matter. In the woodcuts we have seen, and in other depictions
Toledo, Santo Tom?. that emerged from the ars moriendi, the actual departing of the
soul from the body is imaged; the great pictures of the six
teenth and early seventeenth century show, in various ways
and compositions, the ascension of the soul to heaven. The
known example is the fifth century ivory relief now in the Bri late medieval images juxtaposed soul and body, the images
tish Museum [Fig. 13]. We do not know precisely who the per made in the age of Mannerism and early Baroque detach the
son was that is here being raised to heaven.22 We can be sure, soul from its former dwelling place, the body, and show iton
however, that the small figure in the upper part of the panel, itsway to the final destination, the heavens.
apparently lifted up to heaven by wind gods, is the same as The earliest of our examples is taken from Giulio Romano's
the large figure seated in the wagon in the central part. The lat frescoes in the Palazzo del T?. Ina cycle probably representing
ter is the deceased's imago, drawn by elephants in the funeral an allegory of human life,23 the second-last image shows
procession. Even a brief comparison of this fifth-century ivory a human soul in the middle of a mandorla that angels are car
and the late medieval woodcut [Fig. 11] shows that the image rying to heaven. The soul figure itself [Fig. 14] is a full grown,
of the soul had undergone a radical transformation. To put it but young and beautiful, male nude, who folds his hands in the
crudely: a difference of particular significance is that the well known prayer gesture, but turns his head back to look in
departing soul has been converted from a more or less faithful the direction opposed to that where he is being carried. Does
replica of the deceased to an anonymous figure of an infant or that soul look back to the earth where the body remains?
child. Though we do not have many sixteenth-century represen
The humanistic art of the Italian Renaissance did not tations of the departing soul, and hence we cannot draw any
return to the classical model of the soul, least of all of that the final conclusions as to how this anima was understood and
soul departing from the body. It created a new image. In imagined, some simple observations impose themselves on
inventing a new model of the departing soul Italian art in the the spectator. Both in style and in the type of figure, the six
sixteenth century showed that in important respects the teenth-century soul image has obvious affinities to what at
medieval heritage was an important component of Renais that time was considered the classical heritage; the figure's
sance imagination. It ismainly after the middle of the sixteenth ideal proportions, the anatomically perfect shapes, the ele
century that we find some representations of a deceased's gance of stance, and the sense of movement, all this must
soul departing or being carried to its ultimate celestial destina have struck educated Renaissance spectators as truly all'an
tion. (It should be kept inmind that these renderings should, tica. Inmeaning and function, however, the soul-figure is far

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17) Giovanni Lanfraneo, ?The Salvation of a Soul?, Museo e Gallerie Nazionali di Capodimonte, Naples.

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 THE DEPARTING SOUL. THE LONG LIFE OF A MEDIEVAL CREATION

removed from Greek and Roman images and concepts. Ithas Our final illustration is a painting done almost a generation
been suggested that Giulio Romano's ascending figure is later by an artist whose training and inherited imagery were
derived from images of Christ's resurrection and Ascen different from those of El Greco. In 1612-1613 Lanfranco, still
sion.24 Inany case, it is not patterned after antique models of near to the time of his training in the Carracci workshop, paint
a deceased's soul or of Psyche. It is a new creation of the Ital ed a large scale picture representing The Salvation of a Soul
ian High Renaissance. [Fig. 17] that is now in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples.
At the turn from the sixteenth to the seventeenth century, In a sense it is also a three-layer composition. On the upper
two great paintings, representative documents of the spiritual level the Virgin is seated on a throne of clouds; in the lowest
and artistic trends of the time, shed light on the major aspects level we see a demon lying on the ground; and between them,
of what was imagined to happen to the departing soul. Near and in a sense linking both, is the central figure, the soul that
the end of the sixteenth century, in the year 1586, El Greco is being saved. Actually it is the struggle for the soul that is
represented in a large painting The Burial of the Count Orgaz, represented, though we know that itwill be saved. The strug
in the Church of S. Tom?. The subject matter of the painting gle is carried out by muscular force. The Virgin in heaven
was provided by a popular miracle story telling that when the grasps the soul's arm pulling it upwards, to herself, while at
devout Lord Orgaz died, two saints, Stephen and Augustine, the bottom of the painting the dark figure of a shrieking devil
descended from heaven, lifted the Count's body, and laid it in clutches the soul's leg, pulling itdownwards towards himself.
its sepulchre. In the painting [Fig. 15] El Greco represented What El Greco indicated by the fantastic cloudscape, the nar
two worlds, the terrestrial and the celestial. Between the two, row path the soul has to pass between good and evil, Lanfran
contrasted in composition and colour, the ascension of the co both fully reveals and highly dramatizes. The soul itself is
count's soul is depicted [Fig. 16]. An angel carries the soul to imagined as a young nude boy. While it is not as pneumatic as
heaven. The soul has the shape of a baby, but itseems to con El Greco's cloud figure, it retains the traditional features of
sist of a congealed cloud. It still has to cross a curving and youth and, in a certain sense, anonymity.
narrow road, but the Virgin Mary, seated at the feet of Christ, It is only in the modern age that the figure of the departing
seems already to stretch out her hand to receive the ascend soul has faded from artistic memory. The medieval creation
ing soul. had a long life.

1 1979. In Fig. 24 Vermeule a fifth-century

FromJan Assmann, Tod und Jenseits im alten ?gypten, reproduces white-ground
Munich 2001, esp. p. 293,1 learn that in ancient the ability of the lekythos depicting an eidolon seated on the tomb.
Egypt
3
soul to assume different appearances was seen as a revelation of the Panofsky, Tomb Sculpture, pp. 30-31.
4
soul's power. See Erwin Tomb Four Lectures on In a drawing by Salomon Reinach, R?pertoire de Reliefs Grecs
Panofsky, Sculpture:
Its Changing Aspects from Ancient Egypt to Bernini, New York 1964, et Romains, III (Paris 1912), p. 199, 1, the butterfly that Athena places
which is however not devoted to the soul One of the on the head of the as yet inanimate figure can be seen clearly.
image. aspect
5 M.
Egyptian soul imagery is discussed by Beate George, Zu den alt?gyp Rostovtzeff, Dura Europos and Its Art, Oxford 1938, pp. 111
tischen Vorstellungen vom Schatten als Seele, Bonn 1970. ff.; Rachel Wischnitzer, "The Conception of the Resurrection in the
2 Ezekiel Panel in the Dura
Scholarly literature on Greek soul imagery is, of course, very Synagogue," reprinted in Rachel Wis
large. For a recent critical summary of the extensive literature on the chnitzer, From Dura To Rembrandt, Milwaukee-Vienna-Jerusalem
subject, particularly on the eidolon, see Emily Vermeule, Aspects of 1990, pp. 64-69.
6 Charles R. Morey,
Death in Early Greek Art and Poetry, Berkeley-Los Angeles-London Early Christian Art, Princeton 1942.

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MOSHEBARASCH
7 16
Carl
Nordenfalk has shown that, like the Utrecht Psalter, the Adolf Goldschmidt and Kurt Weitzmann, Die byzantinischen
illuminator of the Stuttgart Psalter used a sixth-century model which, Elfenbeinskulpturen des X-XIII. Jahrhunderts, II,Berlin 1934, p. 35, no.
in turn, was based on a fourth-century one. See A. Grabar and C. Nor 34, and pi. 14. And see also K. Weitzmann, "Various Aspects of Byzan
denfalk, Die grossen Jahrhunderte der Malerei: Das fr?he Mittelalter, tine influence on the Latin Countries from the Sixth to the Twelfth Cen
Geneva 1957, p. 145. tury," Dumbarton Oaks Papers, XX (1966), esp. pp. 15 ff.
8 17 our
In the Latin version of the Vulgate, the verse reads: "Quare tris This belief has been studied from different aspects. For
tis es, anima mea, et quare conturbas me?" purpose the investigations of Franz Cumont are particularly signifi
9 Erwin cant. See his Lux perpetua, Paris
Panofsky, Die deutsche Plastik des 11. bis 13. Jahrhun 1949, pp. 303-342.
18 A
derts, Munich 1924, p. 84 and pi. 15; H. Beenken, Romanische Skulp famous and clear example is the relief on the Portal of the
tur in Deutschland, Leipzig 1924, pp. 96 ff. Last Judgment at the cathedral of Reims. Here angels carry the souls
10 Alfred Heinrichs of the just and saints to Abraham, and those souls are all infants, who
Boeckler, Das goldene Evangelienbuch III,
Berlin 1933, p. 123. sometimes fold their hands in prayer.
11 Ihave inmind the Crucifixion in the 19
cycle of the lifeof Christ by Harry A. Wolfson, "Immortality and Resurrection in the Philos
the Sienese painter Barna, in the Collegiata Church in S. Giminiano. ophy of the Church Fathers," reprinted in his Religious Philosophy:
12 Martin P. A Group Mass.
Nilsson, Geschichte der griechischen Religion, 3rd ed., of Essays, Cambridge, 1961, pp. 69-103.
20
Munich 1967,1, p. 195; Walter F. Otto, Die Manen oder die Urformen des Emile M?le, LArt religieux de la fin du moyen Age en France,
Totenglaubens, 2nd ed., Darmstadt 1958, p. 34; and especially Jan Bre 5th ed., Paris 1949, pp. 381 ff.; Arthur A. Imhof, Ars moriendi: Die Kunst
mer, The Early Greek Concept of the Soul, Princeton 1983, pp. 78-80. des Sterbens einst und jetzt, B?hlau-Wien-K?ln 1991. Rich material is
13 Walter Greek 1985 found in Stephan Geschichte der Totent?nze,
Burkert, Religion, Cambridge, Mass., Kozaky, MU, Budapest,
(original German edition, Griechische Religion der archaischen 1936-1944, which, however, is not easy to use.
21
und klassischen Epoche, Stuttgart 1977), pp. 195 ff. And see Bre Paul Rolland, La sculpture tournaisienne, Paris 1944, pp. 27 ff.;
mer, p. 79. Of particular interest to us are the discussions of Ver Panofsky, Tom? Sculpture, fig. 229.
22
nant. See particularly his essay (in English translation) "Psyche: For some time itwas assumed that itwas Constantius Chlorus,
Simulacrum of the Body or Image of the Divine?" in Jean-Pierre Constantine's father, but the identification is uncertain. This ivory has
Vernant, Mortals and Immortals: Collected Essays, Princeton 1991, been much discussed.
See Eug?nie Strong, London 1915, Apotheosis
pp. 187-191. and Afterlife, pp. 287 ff.; Richard Delbr?ck, Consulardyptichen und ver
14 zu der
Bruno Snell, Die Entdeckung des Geistes: Studien wandte Denkm?ler, Berlin 1929, pp. 228 ff.; Franz Cumont, Recherches

Entstehung des europaischen Geistes bei den Griechen, 7th ed., G?t sur le symbolisme fun?raire des Romains, Paris 1942, p. 176.
23 See Frederic New Haven
tingen 1993, pp. 19 ff. Hartt, Giulio Romano, 1951, p. 144,
15 od. 84.5, fol. 79 verso. See Otto Das for a possible of the cycle as a whole.
Wolfenb?ttel, Lerche, interpretation
zu Wolfenb?ttel, 24
Reichenauer Lektionar der Herzog-August-Bibliothek Egon Verheyen, The Palazzo del T? inMantua, Baltimore 1977,
Leipzig 1928, pl. 16 and p. 32. p. 131.

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