Jean Seznec (19 March 1905, in
Morlaix
Morlaix (; br, Montroulez) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
Leisure and tourism
The old quarter of the town has winding streets of cobbled stones and overhan ...
– 22 November 1983, in
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
) was a historian and
mythographer
Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...
whose most influential book, for English-speaking readers, is ''La Survivance des dieux antiques'' (1940), translated as ''
The Survival of the Pagan Gods: Mythological Tradition in Renaissance Humanism and Art'' (1953). Expanding the scope of work by
Warburg Institute
The Warburg Institute is a research institution associated with the University of London in central London, England. A member of the School of Advanced Study, its focus is the study of cultural history and the role of images in culture – cros ...
scholars
Fritz Saxl
Friedrich "Fritz" Saxl (8 January 1890, Vienna, Austria – 22 March 1948, Dulwich, London) was the art historian who was the guiding light of the Warburg Institute, especially during the long mental breakdown of its founder, Aby Warburg, whom h ...
and
Erwin Panofsky
Erwin Panofsky (March 30, 1892 in Hannover – March 14, 1968 in Princeton, New Jersey) was a German-Jewish art historian, whose academic career was pursued mostly in the U.S. after the rise of the Nazi regime.
Panofsky's work represents a hig ...
, Seznec presented a broad view of the transmission of classical representation in
Western art
The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleol ...
.
Career
Seznec won a place at the
French Academy in Rome
The French Academy in Rome (french: Académie de France à Rome) is an Academy located in the Villa Medici, within the Villa Borghese, on the Pincio (Pincian Hill) in Rome, Italy.
History
The Academy was founded at the Palazzo Capranica in 1 ...
in 1929, where he studied under
Émile Mâle
Émile Mâle (; 2 June 1862 – 6 October 1954) was a French art historian, one of the first to study medieval, mostly sacral French art and the influence of Eastern European iconography thereon. He was a member of the Académie française, and a ...
, whose methodology influenced his own work. At the outbreak of
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, Seznec returned from his position in
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
as director of the
French Institute
The (; ) is a French learned society, grouping five , including the Académie Française. It was established in 1795 at the direction of the National Convention. Located on the Quai de Conti in the 6th arrondissement of Paris, the institute ...
, to enlist.
His major work was published in 1940, just as France fell. After the war he accepted a position in
Romance Languages
The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
and Literatures at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, where he taught from 1941 to 1949. He then was elected
Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature
The position of Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford was founded in 1918 shortly after the end of the First World War. Ferdinand Foch, or "Marshal Foch", was supreme commander of Allied forces from April 1918 o ...
at
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, a chair that he held, along with a
fellowship
A fellow is a concept whose exact meaning depends on context.
In learned or professional societies, it refers to a privileged member who is specially elected in recognition of their work and achievements.
Within the context of higher education ...
of
All Souls College, Oxford
All Souls College (official name: College of the Souls of All the Faithful Departed) is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Unique to All Souls, all of its members automatically become fellows (i.e., full members of t ...
, from 1950 until his retirement in 1972.
He edited exhibition catalogues and the edition of
Paris Salon
The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...
art criticism written by the ''
Encyclopédiste''
Denis Diderot
Denis Diderot (; ; 5 October 171331 July 1784) was a French philosopher, art critic, and writer, best known for serving as co-founder, chief editor, and contributor to the ''Encyclopédie'' along with Jean le Rond d'Alembert. He was a promine ...
between 1759–1781, an important primary resource for understanding the history of taste. A conference was held in his memory at the Warburg Institute in 2000.
[Duits, Rembrandt, and François Quiviger, eds. ''Images of the pagan gods: papers of a conference in memory of Jean Seznec.'' London: The Warburg institute, 2009.]
WorldCat
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Thanks largely to Seznec, it is widely understood that the Olympian gods
upright=1.8, Fragment of a relief (1st century BC1st century AD) depicting the twelve Olympians carrying their attributes in procession; from left to right: Hestia (scepter), Hermes (winged cap and staff), Aphrodite (veiled), Ares (helmet and s ...
, and the earlier spirits of field and spring, did not die with the advent of Christianity
Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...
, but lived on. His work traces the process in which they were already transformed during late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
, whether embedded within history as transfigured former human beings in the Euhemerist view that was embraced by Christian apologists (''interpretatio christiana
''Interpretatio Christiana'' (Latin for Christian interpretation, also Christian reinterpretation) is adaptation of non-Christian elements of culture or historical facts to the worldview of Christianity. The term is commonly applied to recasting ...
''), or given planetary roles as astral divinities in the worldview of astrology
Astrology is a range of Divination, divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of Celestial o ...
and magic
Magic or Magick most commonly refers to:
* Magic (supernatural), beliefs and actions employed to influence supernatural beings and forces
* Ceremonial magic, encompasses a wide variety of rituals of magic
* Magical thinking, the belief that unrela ...
or allegorized as moral emblem
An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint.
Emblems vs. symbols
Although the words ''emblem'' and '' symbol'' are often use ...
s. They surviving in pictorial and in literary traditions and among the common people went underground to feature in folk culture
Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, r ...
, took on strange new guises and were transformed in various ways, their myths recast to suit some of the mythic saints of late antiquity
Late antiquity is the time of transition from classical antiquity to the Middle Ages, generally spanning the 3rd–7th century in Europe and adjacent areas bordering the Mediterranean Basin. The popularization of this periodization in English ha ...
. Their imagery permeated Medieval intellectual and emotional life. The transformed mythology re-emerged in the iconography of the early Tuscan Renaissance
The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...
, with new attributes that the ancients had never imagined, and enjoyed tremendous renewed popularity during the Renaissance.
Seznec's work benefits from the illustrated formats it has been receiving in modern paperback formats. Studies such as Joscelyn Godwin
Joscelyn Godwin (born 16 January 1945 at Kelmscott, Oxfordshire, England) is a composer, musicologist, and translator, known for his work on ancient music, paganism, and music in the occult.
Biography
He was educated as a chorister at Christ ...
's ''The Pagan Dream Of The Renaissance'' (2002) depend on it. Godwin further explores Seznec's theme, how pagan deities captivated the European imagination during the Renaissance, taking their place side-by-side with Christian iconography
Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...
and doctrines.
Works
* ''La survivance des dieux antiques. Essai sur le rôle de la tradition mythologique dans l’humanisme et dans l’art de la Renaissance'' (Studies of the Warburg Institute, 11), London: The Warburg Institute 1940; 2nd ed. Paris: Flammarion 1980, repr. 1993
** English tr.: ''The survival of the pagan gods. The mythological tradition and its place in Renaissance humanism and art.'' Tr. Barbara F. Sessions, New York 1953, repr. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton UP 1972, 1995
** German tr.: ''Das Fortleben der antiken Götter. Die mythologische Tradition im Humanismus und in der Kunst der Renaissance.'' Tr. H. Jatho, 1990
** Spanish tr. : ''Los dioses de la Antigüedad en la Edad Media y en el Renacimiento.'' Tr. Juan Aranzadi, Taurus, Madrid 1983
See also
* Aby Warburg
Aby Moritz Warburg, better known as Aby Warburg, (June 13, 1866 – October 26, 1929) was a German art historian and cultural theorist who founded the Kulturwissenschaftliche Bibliothek Warburg (Library for Cultural Studies), a private library, ...
References
External links
Brief biography of Jean Seznec
{{DEFAULTSORT:Seznec, Jean
1905 births
1983 deaths
People from Morlaix
École Normale Supérieure alumni
Mythographers
Harvard University faculty
Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford
Marshal Foch Professors of French Literature
20th-century French historians
French male non-fiction writers
Scholars of French literature
Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite
Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
20th-century French male writers