Introduction: The Four Temperaments
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The Four Temperaments
Heemskerck’s series The Four Temperaments helped establish a standard visual language for the temperaments, an iconography shared in part with their representation in the emblem books displayed nearby. Heemskerck gathered iconographic elements from a range of sources and consolidated these into a concise and comprehensive template.
The upper register of each print labels the temperament and aligns it with a specific planet, Roman God, and zodiac sign. The lower register of the print combines seemingly unrelated scenes to depict moods and actions associated with the temperament. Notice the references to suicide and geometry in Melancholici, water and fishermen in Phlegmatici, lovers and festivity in Sanguinei, and combat and smoke in Cholerici.
The gallery’s four colors reinforce the diagrammatic quality of Heemskerck’s own prints. Each color carries unique associations, tracing the emergence of the temperaments from the four bodily humors: red blood (sanguine), black bile (melancholy), yellow bile (choleric), and white phlegm (phlegmatic).
