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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [Z2r f178r]

IMPOSSIBILE.

The impossible

Emblema. 59.

Two white men washing a black man
[Click on image to enlarge]

Abluis Aetiopem, quid frustra? ah desine, noctîs
Illustrare nigrae nemo potest tenebras.[1]

Why are you washing an Ethiopian in vain? Oh, do stop. No one can turn the shades of black night into light.

Notes:

1.  This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 11.428. See also Aesop, Fables 11; Erasmus, Adagia 350, Aethiopen lavas.

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  • (personifications of) 'Vanitas', the vanity of human life; Fragilit� humana, Fugacit� delle grandezze & della gloria mondana, Meditatione della morte, Opera vana, Piacere vano, Vana gloria, Vanit� (Ripa) [11R5] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • day and night [23R] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Impossibility (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52BB42(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass

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Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [H5v p122]

Impossible.

LXXXIIII.

Two white men are washing a black man.
[Click on image to enlarge]

Il est un milier de negoces,
Où lon ne peut remede mettre.
Et quoy qu’ardemment t’en courrouces,
Si n’en feras tu ja le maistre.
Parquoy si tu quiers hors blasme estre,
Ne prens peine à blanchir un More.
En la nuict ne peut clarté naistre.
Un vice inveteré demeure.[1]

commentaires.

Tous les Ethiopiens sont noirs de leur naissance: car
Link to an image of this page  Link to an image of this page  [H6r p123] ceste region là est si prochaine du Soleil, qu’elle en
est comme bruslee. Partant, quelque peine qu’on
prenne à les laver, on perd son temps: car ils demeu-
rent tousjours noirs. Nul aussi ne sçauroit esclairer
les tenebres de la nuict: il est impossible. Cest embleme est
escrit contre ceux qui s’opiniastrent à vouloir faire
des choses qui ne sont pas en leur puissance.

Notes:

1.  This is a translation of Anthologia graeca 11.428. See also Aesop, Fables 11; Erasmus, Adagia 350, Aethiopen lavas.

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  • (personifications of) 'Vanitas', the vanity of human life; Fragilit� humana, Fugacit� delle grandezze & della gloria mondana, Meditatione della morte, Opera vana, Piacere vano, Vana gloria, Vanit� (Ripa) [11R5] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • day and night [23R] Search | Browse Iconclass
  • Impossibility (+ emblematical representation of concept) [52BB42(+4)] Search | Browse Iconclass

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