'The Corpse- Head', or, a bedtime story for map lovers
http://www.kunstpedia.com/articles/460/1/The-Corpse--Head-or-a-bedtime-story-for-map-lovers-/Page1.html
The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.www.imcos.org
By The Map Collector
Published on 1 March 1989
by Francis Herbert
This cartographical curiosity is an example of 'the most widely known of all the caricatures directed against Napoleon.' The explanation beneath the caricature - known variously as the 'Corpse Head', 'Hieroglyphic Head', or 'Hieroglyphic Portrait' - has already been adequately translated into English:-
This cartographical curiosity is an example of 'the most widely known of all the caricatures directed against Napoleon.' The explanation beneath the caricature - known variously as the 'Corpse Head', 'Hieroglyphic Head', or 'Hieroglyphic Portrait' - has already been adequately translated into English:-
By Francis Herbert
THIS CARTOGRAPHICAL CURIOSITY is an example of 'the most widely known of all the caricatures directed against Napoleon.' The explanation beneath the caricature - known variously as the 'Corpse Head', 'Hieroglyphic Head', or 'Hieroglyphic Portrait' - has already been adequately translated into English:-
'The face is composed of the corpses of those who died on account of his ambition, while he is crushed by the eagle of the Allies. A map indicates the names of the battles he lost during his last campaign, as well as the rivers he crossed, and which fall into his collar-stream of blood. The hand of Justice crushes the thread of his grandeur, the flimsy nature of which is indicated by the spider's web and the word Ehrfurt on the ribbon of his Order (of the Legion), which denotes that he has lost all honour.'
'It was a hieroglyphic profile of Napoleon. The hat represented a maimed French eagle; the face was ingeniously made up of human carcases, knotted and writhing together in such directions as to form a physiognomy; a baud, or stock, shaped to resemble the English Channel, encircled his throat, and seemed to choke him; his epaulette was a hand tearing a cobweb that represented the treaty of peace with England; and his ear was a woman crouching over a dying child.' [from The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy, 1880]. (Picture by courtesy of Rodney Shirley).
The non-caricature model was a head and shoulders engraved portrait by Lehmann, taken from a sketch made by H. A. Dahring of Napoleon in Berlin during November 1806. Napoleon suffered a series of costly victories and defeats culminating in that of Leipzig October 16-19, 1813. The original of this caricature depicted was printed anonymously in Berlin in about December 1813, prior to which 'Berlin patriots had been compelled ......to import their stock of satirical prints from London ......'. Many years later the author 'of the grim and gruesome print' was announced. It was Johann Michael Voltz (1784-1858). The original German title was 'Wahre Abbildung des Eroberers. Triumph des Jahres, 1813. Den Deutscher zum Neuen Jahr' [True picture of the Conqueror. Triumph of the year, 1813. For the Germans at New Year] and was presumably intended as a New Year's gift to Voltz's compatriots as well as 'to stimulate the general uprising of the European nations against the Tyrant.' By the spring of 1814 it had been copied and reproduced in Germany, Russia, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, England - and Paris.
There are at least four versions in French recorded, one of which is entitled 'Le conquerant devastateur.' The version illustrated has 'Dep[os] e a la Dirfeetio]n G[eneral]e' (beneath the five-line explanation) which indicates that it was either printed in Paris or there was the intention of making it appear to have been so (it could, for example, just as well have been printed in Berlin - and in French). If it is a genuine Paris production this would be doubly ironic. By a 'Decret Contenant reglement sur l'Imprimerie et la Librairie' issued by Napoleon from the Tuileries Palace on February 5, 1810 (published in Bulletin des Lois no.264) the first article stated: 'I1 y aura un directeur general, charge, sous les ordres de notre ministre de l'interieur, de tout ce qui est relatif a l'imprimerie et a la librairie,' [There shall be a director general, responsible, under the orders of our Interior Minister, for all that concerns printing and publishing]. The 'Direction generale de l'imprimerie et de la Iibrairie' now had an 'arsenal' of 51 Articles, 26 of which concerned the police and printers; these in Paris were now reduced to a total of 60 and were to be certificated and sworn in. This was in order that the police could keep a record of who was where. The situation was similar to the passing of the Seditious Societies Act of July 12, 1799 in England which sought to keep 'tabs' on London printers as a result of fears of the growth and establishment of such organisations and their desire to print revolutionary material.
In Paris two of the punishable offences were: not depositing five copies of the printed item with the 'Direction Generale', and not printing the names of author and/or printer. Hence the suggestion above that the version illustrated could be a nonParisian production in order to avoid prosecution. The whole subject of cartographic counterfeiting, too, has yet to be researched and printed together rather than gathered from disparate sources. If any item failed to satisfy the authorities the printer had two choices: censorship or seizure of goods - both, apparently, arbitrary! Nevertheless a French version was advertised in Le Journal de Paris of May 3 1814 - but this is not unlikely as Napoleon had abdicated power on April 11, following the entry of the Allies into Paris on March 30-31.
lt should be explained further, perhaps, that Ehrfurt (modern form Erfurt) is a pun: 'Ehr(e)' means 'honour' and 'furt' (or 'fort' in some versions) means 'loss', and also reflects on demise of power compared to Napoleon's position at the Congress of Erfurt in 1808. Other toponyms shown which may need explaining for some readers arc 'Weichsel' ('Vistula' in English or 'Wisa' in Polish), 'Culm' or 'Kulm' (now 'Chlumec' in northern Bohemia), 'Heinau' or 'Haynau' ('Chojn6w' in Poland), and 'Katzbach' ('Kaczawa' in Poland) - like the first, a river name (the main battle took place between the villages of Eichholz or Warmatowice and Bellwitzhof or Bielowiee). Different versions of this widely-disseminated caricature sometimes had different initials (standing for the Allies' countries names) on the fingers.
COPYRIGHT Winter 1989 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
THIS CARTOGRAPHICAL CURIOSITY is an example of 'the most widely known of all the caricatures directed against Napoleon.' The explanation beneath the caricature - known variously as the 'Corpse Head', 'Hieroglyphic Head', or 'Hieroglyphic Portrait' - has already been adequately translated into English:-
'The face is composed of the corpses of those who died on account of his ambition, while he is crushed by the eagle of the Allies. A map indicates the names of the battles he lost during his last campaign, as well as the rivers he crossed, and which fall into his collar-stream of blood. The hand of Justice crushes the thread of his grandeur, the flimsy nature of which is indicated by the spider's web and the word Ehrfurt on the ribbon of his Order (of the Legion), which denotes that he has lost all honour.'
'It was a hieroglyphic profile of Napoleon. The hat represented a maimed French eagle; the face was ingeniously made up of human carcases, knotted and writhing together in such directions as to form a physiognomy; a baud, or stock, shaped to resemble the English Channel, encircled his throat, and seemed to choke him; his epaulette was a hand tearing a cobweb that represented the treaty of peace with England; and his ear was a woman crouching over a dying child.' [from The Trumpet-Major by Thomas Hardy, 1880]. (Picture by courtesy of Rodney Shirley).
The non-caricature model was a head and shoulders engraved portrait by Lehmann, taken from a sketch made by H. A. Dahring of Napoleon in Berlin during November 1806. Napoleon suffered a series of costly victories and defeats culminating in that of Leipzig October 16-19, 1813. The original of this caricature depicted was printed anonymously in Berlin in about December 1813, prior to which 'Berlin patriots had been compelled ......to import their stock of satirical prints from London ......'. Many years later the author 'of the grim and gruesome print' was announced. It was Johann Michael Voltz (1784-1858). The original German title was 'Wahre Abbildung des Eroberers. Triumph des Jahres, 1813. Den Deutscher zum Neuen Jahr' [True picture of the Conqueror. Triumph of the year, 1813. For the Germans at New Year] and was presumably intended as a New Year's gift to Voltz's compatriots as well as 'to stimulate the general uprising of the European nations against the Tyrant.' By the spring of 1814 it had been copied and reproduced in Germany, Russia, Italy, Holland, Spain, Portugal, Sweden, England - and Paris.
There are at least four versions in French recorded, one of which is entitled 'Le conquerant devastateur.' The version illustrated has 'Dep[os] e a la Dirfeetio]n G[eneral]e' (beneath the five-line explanation) which indicates that it was either printed in Paris or there was the intention of making it appear to have been so (it could, for example, just as well have been printed in Berlin - and in French). If it is a genuine Paris production this would be doubly ironic. By a 'Decret Contenant reglement sur l'Imprimerie et la Librairie' issued by Napoleon from the Tuileries Palace on February 5, 1810 (published in Bulletin des Lois no.264) the first article stated: 'I1 y aura un directeur general, charge, sous les ordres de notre ministre de l'interieur, de tout ce qui est relatif a l'imprimerie et a la librairie,' [There shall be a director general, responsible, under the orders of our Interior Minister, for all that concerns printing and publishing]. The 'Direction generale de l'imprimerie et de la Iibrairie' now had an 'arsenal' of 51 Articles, 26 of which concerned the police and printers; these in Paris were now reduced to a total of 60 and were to be certificated and sworn in. This was in order that the police could keep a record of who was where. The situation was similar to the passing of the Seditious Societies Act of July 12, 1799 in England which sought to keep 'tabs' on London printers as a result of fears of the growth and establishment of such organisations and their desire to print revolutionary material.
In Paris two of the punishable offences were: not depositing five copies of the printed item with the 'Direction Generale', and not printing the names of author and/or printer. Hence the suggestion above that the version illustrated could be a nonParisian production in order to avoid prosecution. The whole subject of cartographic counterfeiting, too, has yet to be researched and printed together rather than gathered from disparate sources. If any item failed to satisfy the authorities the printer had two choices: censorship or seizure of goods - both, apparently, arbitrary! Nevertheless a French version was advertised in Le Journal de Paris of May 3 1814 - but this is not unlikely as Napoleon had abdicated power on April 11, following the entry of the Allies into Paris on March 30-31.
lt should be explained further, perhaps, that Ehrfurt (modern form Erfurt) is a pun: 'Ehr(e)' means 'honour' and 'furt' (or 'fort' in some versions) means 'loss', and also reflects on demise of power compared to Napoleon's position at the Congress of Erfurt in 1808. Other toponyms shown which may need explaining for some readers arc 'Weichsel' ('Vistula' in English or 'Wisa' in Polish), 'Culm' or 'Kulm' (now 'Chlumec' in northern Bohemia), 'Heinau' or 'Haynau' ('Chojn6w' in Poland), and 'Katzbach' ('Kaczawa' in Poland) - like the first, a river name (the main battle took place between the villages of Eichholz or Warmatowice and Bellwitzhof or Bielowiee). Different versions of this widely-disseminated caricature sometimes had different initials (standing for the Allies' countries names) on the fingers.
COPYRIGHT Winter 1989 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.