Painted ENIGMAS, are representations of the works of nature or art, concealed under human figures, drawn from history or fable.
A Verbal ENIGMA, is a witty, artful, and abstruse description of any thing.—In a general sense, every dark saying, every difficult question, every parable, may pass for an enigma. Hence obscure laws are called Enigmata Juris. The alchemists are great dealers in the enigmatic language, their processes for the philosopher's stone being generally wrapt up in riddles: e. g. Fac ex mare et femina circulum, inde quadrangulum, hinc triangulum, fac circulum, et habebis lapidem philosophorum.—F. Menestrier has attempted to reduce the composition and resolution of enigmas to a kind of art, with fixed rules and principles, which he calls the philosophy of enigmatic images.
The Subject of an ENIGMA, or the thing to be concealed and made a mystery of, he justly observes, ought not to be such in itself; but, on the contrary, common, obvious, and easy to be conceived. It is to be taken, either from nature, as the heaven or stars; or from art, as painting, the compass, a mirror, or the like.
The Form of ENIGMAS consists in the words, which, whether they be in prose or verse, contain either some description, a question, or a prosopopoeia. The last kind are the most pleasing, inasmuch as they give life and action to things which otherwise have them not. To make an enigma, therefore, two things are to be pitched on which bear some resemblance to each other, as the sun and a monarch; or a ship and a house; and on this resemblance is to be raised a superstructure of contrarieties to amuse and perplex. It is easier to find great subjects for enigmas in figures than in words, inasmuch as painting attracts the eyes and excites the attention to discover the sense. The subjects of enigmas in painting are to be taken either from history or fable: the composition here is a kind of metamorphosis, wherein, e. g. human figures are changed into trees, and rivers into metals. It is essential to enigmas, that the history or fable, under which they are presented, be known to every body; otherwise it will be two enigmas instead of one; the first of the history or fable, the second of the sense in which it is to be taken. Another essential rule of the enigma is, that it only admits of one sense. Every enigma which is susceptible of different interpretations, all equally natural, is so far imperfect. What gives a kind of erudition to an enigma, is the invention of figures in situations, gestures, colours, &c. authorised by passages of
the poets, the customs of artists in statues, basso relievos, inscriptions, and medals.—In foreign colleges, Enigma.
The Explanation of ENIGMAS makes a considerable exercise; and that one of the most difficult and amusing, where wit and penetration have the largest field.—By explaining an enigma, is meant the finding a motto corresponding to the action and persons represented in a picture, taken either from history or mythology. The great art of this exercise consists in the choice of a motto, which either by itself, or the circumstances of time, place, person who speaks, or those before whom he is speaking, may divert the spectators, and furnish occasion for strokes of wit; also in showing to advantage the conformities between the figure and thing figured, giving ingenious turns to the reasons employed to support what is advanced, and in artfully introducing pieces of poetry to illustrate the subject and awaken the attention of the audience.
As to the solution of enigmas, it may be observed, that those expressed by figures are more difficult to explain than those consisting of words, by reason images may signify more things than words can; so that to fix them to a particular sense, we must apply every situation, symbol, &c. and without omitting a circumstance.—As there are few persons in history, or mythology, but have some particular character of vice or virtue, we are, before all things, to attend to this character, in order to divine what the figure of a person represented in a painting signifies, and to find what agreement this may have with the subject whereof we would explain it. Thus, if Proteus be represented in a picture, it may be taken to denote inconstancy, and applied either to a physical or moral subject, whose character is to be changeable, e. g. an almanack, which expresses the weather, the seasons, heat, cold, storms, and the like. The colours of figures may also help to unriddle what they mean: white, for instance, is a mark of innocence, red of modesty, green of hope, black of sorrow, &c. When figures are accompanied with symbols, they are less precarious; these being, as it were, the soul of enigmas, and the key that opens the mystery of them. Of all the kinds of symbols which may be met with in those who have treated professedly on the subject, the only true enigmatical are those of Pythagoras, which, under dark proverbs, hold forth lessons of morality; as when he says Stateram ne transfalias, to signify, Do no injustice.
But it must be added, that we meet with some enigmas, in history, complicated to a degree which much transcends all rules, and has given great perplexity to the interpreters of them. Such is that celebrated ancient one, Ælia Lælia Crispis, about which many of the learned have puzzled their heads. There are two exemplars of it: one found 140 years ago, on a marble near Bologna; the other in an ancient MS. written in Gothic letters at Milan. It is controverted between the two cities, which is to be reputed the more authentic.
The Bononian Enigma.
D. M.
Ælia Lælia Crispis,
Nec vir, nec mulier,
Nec androgyna;
Nec puella, nec juvenis,
Nec anus;
Nec casta, nec meretrix,
Nec pudica;
Sed omnia:
Subiata
Neque fame, neque ferro,
Neque veneno;
Sed omnibus:
Nec cælo, nec terris,
Nec aquis,
Sed ubique jacet.
Lucius Agatho Priscius,
Nec maritus, nec amator,
Nec necessarius;
Neque marens, neque gaudens,
Neque flens;
Hanc,
Nec molem, nec pyramidem,
Nec sepulchrum,
Sed omnia,
Scit et nescit, cui posuerit.
That is to say, To the gods manes, Ælia Lælia Crispis, neither man, nor woman, nor hermaphrodite; neither girl, nor young woman, nor old; neither chaste, nor a whore; but all these: killed neither by hunger, nor steel, nor poison; but by all these: rests neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor in the waters; but everywhere. Lucius Agatho Priscius, neither her husband, nor lover, nor friend; neither sorrowful, nor joyful, nor weeping, certain, or uncertain, to whom he rears this monument, neither erects her a temple, nor a pyramid, nor a tomb, but all these. In the MS. at Milan, instead of D. M. we find A. M. P. P. D. and at the end the following addition:
Hoc est sepulchrum intus cadaver non habens.
Hoc est cadaver sepulchrum extra non habens,
Sed cadaver idem est et sepulchrum.
We find near 50 several solutions of this ænigma advanced by learned men. Marius Michael Angelo maintains Ælia Lælia Crispis to signify rain water falling into the sea. Ri. Vitus first explained it of Niobe turned to a stone, afterwards of the rational soul, and afterwards of the Platonic idea; Jo. Turrius, of the materia prima; Fr. Schottus, of an eunuch; Nic. Bernardus, of the philosopher's stone, in which he is followed by Borrichius; Zach. Pontinus, of three human bodies in the same situation, and buried by three different men at the same time; Nesmondus, of a law-suit; Jo. Gas. Gerartius, of love; Zu. Boxhornius, of a shadow; P. Terronus, of music; Fort. Licetus, of generation, friendship and privation; M. Ov. Montalbanus, of hemp; Car. Cæf. Malvasia, of an abortive girl promised in marriage; Pet. Mengulus, of the rule of chastity, prescribed by the founder of the military religion of St Mary; M. de Ciconia, of Pope Joan; Heumannus, of Lot's wife; and lastly, J. C. S. an anonymous writer in the Leipsic Acts, of the Christian church.