Gelosia e tormenti d’amore tra emblemistica e allegoria. Intrecci di immagini e parole

Based on Sixteenth-Century emblematics, the «Emblemata Amatoria», which flourished in the Dutch area in the early Seventeenth Century, intertwined words and images in order to present the complexity of the feelings felt by lovers. Retrieving moral maxims from Greek and Latin culture, but also from Petrarchan lyricism, such volumes particularly dwelt on human powerlessness in the face of Cupid and the resulting interior agonies caused by a complexity of emotions: from Suspicion to Fear, from Envy to Jealousy. In the inextricable connection between the figurative aspect and the relevant moralistic writing, which constitutes the common thread of such literary typology, the focus here is on a few iconographic examples, «speaking images» which make visible abstract feelings that are difficult to represent.