The Desert at the Worldâs End: Eschatological Space in Van Hemessenâs Hermit Landscapes

Anna-Claire Stinebring

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Chapter 13 The Desert at the Worldâs End: Eschatological Space in Van Hemessenâs Hermit Landscapes

In: The Eschatological Imagination

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Anna-Claire Stinebring

Anna-Claire Stinebring
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Type:: Chapter

Pages:: 371â395

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004688247_014

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Abstract

The desert in sixteenth-century Netherlandish hermit landscapes is a zone of relative visual simplicity. It mediates between enticing, often foregrounded terrains symbolizing sin and a visionary realm of heavenly splendour kept at a distance. In versions of the Penitent St. Jerome in the Wilderness by the Antwerp painter Jan Sanders van Hemessen (active 1524âafter 1556), the bodily properties of the desert landscape are brought to the fore. These works prompt viewers to reflect on the material and affective dimensions of this eschatological space. The desert as it echoes the muscular topography of the saintâs naked (or nearly naked) body models for original viewers the difficult process of emptying out worldly distractions in devotional meditation on the Last Things. Yet in these penitential landscapes the ascetic saint also models the ultimate sensory rewards of this ostensibly depriving devotional practice. Visionary vignettes promise a heavenly plenitude whose full visualization is intentionally withheld.

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The Eschatological Imagination

Space, Time, and Experience (1300â1800)

Series:Â Intersections, Volume: 96

E-Book ISBN:: 9789004688247

Publisher:: Brill

Print Publication Date:: 15 Oct 2024

Subjects

Front Matter

Part 1 Cosmology and Eschatology

Part 2 Underlands and Netherworlds

Part 3 Visions of Heaven and Hell

Part 4 Spiritual Reckoning and Refuge

Part 5 Sites of Purgation, Meditation, and Martyrdom

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African Studies	Education	Media Studies
American Studies	History	Middle East and Islamic Studies
Ancient Near East and Egypt	Human Rights and Humanitarian Law	Musicology
Art History	International Law	Philosophy
Asian Studies	International Relations	Religious Studies
Biblical Studies	Jewish Studies	Slavic and Eurasian Studies
Biology	Languages and Linguistics	Social Sciences
Book History and Cartography	Life Sciences	Theology and World Christianity
Classical Studies	Literature and Cultural Studies

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Chapter 13 The Desert at the Worldâs End: Eschatological Space in Van Hemessenâs Hermit Landscapes

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The Eschatological Imagination

Space, Time, and Experience (1300â1800)

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Chapter 13 The Desert at the Worldâs End: Eschatological Space in Van Hemessenâs Hermit Landscapes

Space, Time, and Experience (1300â1800)