“Złego sługę malarze tak figurowali” (“A bad servant was so depicted”): Sources of the Images of a Good and Bad Servant and of a Good and Bad Wife in Chapter 4 of Mikołaj Rej’s Źwierzyniec (‘The Bestiary’)

The chapter of Mikołaj Rej’s Źwierzyniec (‘The Bestiary’), entitled Jako starych wieków przypadki świeckie ludzie sobie malowali (‘As People Painted Secular Shapes from Old Times’), is a collection of epigrams accompanied by visual illustrations of various human features and vices. As proved in 1893 by Ignacy Chrzanowski, some of the pieces were inspired by Andrea Alciato’s emblems, hence the search for Rej’s sources focused on emblem literature. However, despite the evidence that Rej’s epigrams were intended as comments to illustrations, they still may be rooted in literary texts.

This article deals with the sources of four epigrams, namely, the one depicting a bad servant, a good servant, a good wife and a bad wife. The epigram Sługa dobry (IV 31, ‘The Good Servant’) may have been modeled on the popular treaty Οίκετηςsive De officio famulorum, written in 1535 by Gilbert Cousin, who described an image of a good servant, subsequently painted in French nobles’ chambers. It presented a human silhouette with a pig’s face, donkey’s ears and deer’s legs, which captured the idea of the servant being easy to feed, eager to listen and fast to follow the master’s orders. This image was widely popularized in 16th-century drawings, however none of them is known to have been familiar to Rej before 1562 and used by him as a pattern for his epigram.

Since a pig’s snout is associated with gluttony in Rej’s other texts, in the epigram Sługa dobry it is replaced by a bull’s head. The image of the snout is exploited in Zły sługa (IV 30, ‘The Bad Servant’). Rej equipped the bad servant with a wolf ’s ears – he will pretend to misunderstand orders for his own benefit, a bear’s paws –he steals, and a dog’s tail – he flatters his master.

The two epigrams presenting the images of a good wife and a bad wife, were inspired by verses that were echoed in Rej’s other works, for instance in Postylla (1557, ‘Postil’) and Żywot człowieka poczciwego (1568, ‘Life of a Virtuous Man’). The epigram Żona poczciwa (IV 32, ‘The Virtuous Wife’) alludes to Ps. 128(127):3, whereas Żona wszeteczna (IV 33, ‘The Profligate Wife’) to Prov. 11:22.

The chapter of Mikołaj Rej’s Źwierzyniec (‘The Bestiary’), entitled Jako starych wieków przypadki świeckie ludzie sobie malowali (‘As People Painted Secular Shapes from Old Times’), is a collection of epigrams accompanied by visual illustrations of various human features and vices. As proved in 1893 by Ignacy Chrzanowski, some of the pieces were inspired by Andrea Alciato’s emblems, hence the search for Rej’s sources focused on emblem literature. However, despite the evidence that Rej’s epigrams were intended as comments to illustrations, they still may be rooted in literary texts.

This article deals with the sources of four epigrams, namely, the one depicting a bad servant, a good servant, a good wife and a bad wife. The epigram Sługa dobry (IV 31, ‘The Good Servant’) may have been modeled on the popular treaty Οίκετηςsive De officio famulorum, written in 1535 by Gilbert Cousin, who described an image of a good servant, subsequently painted in French nobles’ chambers. It presented a human silhouette with a pig’s face, donkey’s ears and deer’s legs, which captured the idea of the servant being easy to feed, eager to listen and fast to follow the master’s orders. This image was widely popularized in 16th-century drawings, however none of them is known to have been familiar to Rej before 1562 and used by him as a pattern for his epigram.

Since a pig’s snout is associated with gluttony in Rej’s other texts, in the epigram Sługa dobry it is replaced by a bull’s head. The image of the snout is exploited in Zły sługa (IV 30, ‘The Bad Servant’). Rej equipped the bad servant with a wolf ’s ears – he will pretend to misunderstand orders for his own benefit, a bear’s paws –he steals, and a dog’s tail –he flatters his master.

The two epigrams presenting the images of a good wife and a bad wife, were inspired by verses that were echoed in Rej’s other works, for instance in Postylla (1557, ‘Postil’) and Żywot człowieka poczciwego (1568, ‘Life of a Virtuous Man’). The epigram Żona poczciwa (IV 32, ‘The Virtuous Wife’) alludes to Ps. 128(127):3, whereas Żona wszeteczna (IV 33, ‘The Profligate Wife’) to Prov. 11:22.