Folio 94

Georg Bocskay, calligraphy; Joris Hoefnagel, miniature painting, "Folio 94," from Calligraphic Specimen Book, 1591-94 miniature painting; 1571-73 calligraphy. Parchment, watercolours and opaque paint, silver and gold heightening, 18.8 x 14 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. KK 975

Equally difficult to read are the more linear, accented bunches of scrolls on folio 94. Though the density is somewhat more regulated and bunched up, a strong sense of interconnectedness nonetheless persists.

Notice here the elliptical contours of the strung-up duck, and look above to the volumetric forms in the upper line of “text”or even glance to the descending loop to its right, which shares the same “ground line,”for lack of a better term. 

Bocskay and Hoefnagel, "Folio 94" (detail).

The fauna, too, exhibit such an echoing of textual shapes; examine the flourish at the top right corner of this page, and look leftwards to the two blue flowers and their leaves. It is umistakable that Hoefnagel’s miniature paintings directly address and engage with Bocskay’s calligraphy.

Bocskay and Hoefnagel, "Folio 94" (detail).

The two equally virtuosic practices come together in this manuscript - calligraphy and miniature painting. Both Georg Bocskay and Joris Hoefnagel were the masters of their respective arts, recognized as such and brought together by a system of royal patronage. The two never met, and Hoefnagel illuminated Bocskay’s calligraphic specimen book almost twenty years later. Nevertheless, a marriage between word and image is apparent throughout – a union prompted perhaps by the paragone between them. “Paragone,” literally meaning “comparison,” is an ancient debate among artists of whose craft is the ultimate art form; in this manuscript, Hoefnagel rivals the art of miniature painting with the art of calligraphy through interacting image with text.