The Subconscious Paradox of Marine Life

The Subconscious Paradox of Marine Life

Inconsistencies and disconnections between the fascination for ambergris and the bad omen associated with whales throughout the North Sea emerged in prominent seafaring nations. The subconscious paradox that followed this obsession for whales moved beyond pure economic wealth and conveyed covert allegories and symbols that show greater symptoms of the general shift occurring in 17th century European society. This turbulence in the public sphere, through politics and religion, led to anxiety and the production of these images. Jan Saenredam’s Whale Stranded at Beverwijk on January 13, 1601 is a rich example of this, as it shows political and religious allegories while also tapping into the more scientific advances in marine biology. It engages the viewer by showing an episode that was feared by the general public, stemming from the impossibility to delimit the water regions that whales inhabited, touching on anxiety-inducing themes of invasion and statelessness. The arctic landscapes, where most of the whales hunted by the Dutch transited, amazed navigators. This sense of awe, however, was mitigated by the harsh and unsustainable weather. Anxiety increased due to these arctic spaces being liminal, outside of the traditional, protected frontiers of the Republic. Hugo de Groot’s 1604 legal treaties cemented this as the “Delft legal prodigy […] formulated his notion of the freedom of the seas'' which deemed that sea borders were fluid, therefore providing free circulation to all.Christopher P. Heuer, Into the White: The Renaissance Arctic and the End of the Image (New York: Zone Books, 2019), 155. This treaty enabled Dutch mariners to justify exploration by “invoking nature as a rationale for mercantile freedom.”Christopher P. Heuer, Into the White: The Renaissance Arctic and the End of the Image (New York: Zone Books, 2019), 155. While laws positively supported freedom of movement, it placed the themes of territorial invasions and war permanently in the Dutch psyche all throughout the seventeenth century.

Therefore, beached whales also symbolized political breaching, as they were considered foreign entities that washed up onto Dutch territories from alien, and thus enemy, origins.

The lack of knowledge about these particular events made way for various oracles and interpretations. The beach as a space was a physical threshold for such hostile intruders to traverse. When looking at ambergris as a material good, it is essential to look at it in relation to the host body that produces it. In this sense, ambergris was undetachable and indistinguishable from the whale which embodies the shift during the 16th and 17th centuries. This is where the paradox arises: while beached whales connotated political invasion, whaling and beached ambergris brought immense prosperity to those involved. The changing society was defined by new discoveries, not only for geographical areas as a whole but all the material goods and cultural practices that these had to offer. This new freedom of movement, scientific work, and desire for the exotic in areas outside of Western Europe blended with past but remaining superstitious and religious beliefs. Although the presence of whales on the Northern shoreline was a sign of political turmoil, these beings were also uniquely intriguing for their spectacle and aesthetic qualities, bringing people together by shared curiosity.

A Plague Upon Both Your Houses

Whale carcasses on the Dutch coast were cut up and commercialized for multipurpose decorative artifacts and oil by-products.Simon Schama. The Embarrassment of Riches : An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age. First. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), 131. This dependency on whale blubber highlighted an increased vulnerability. This meant that the collapse of this supply chain would lead to the demise of the Dutch economy literally but also symbolically, as economic prosperity was intrinsically linked to national pride. Whales therefore bolstered both economic allure and anxiety, oscillating between these two realms. Jan Saenredam conveys the mysticism of these sea creatures by juxtaposing it within the allegorical shell cartouche that frames the print. These depictions alongside the poem give extensive details and historical context to the main scene happening at the center of the engraving, most notably, its “many calamities and bloodbaths”.Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches : An Interpretation of Dutch Culture in the Golden Age. First, (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1987), 139. For example, the 1602 Amsterdam plague which broke out that same year killed thousands and left businesses bankrupt and city life listless. As a result, beached whales not only announced epidemics but were also blamed as the root of such diseases, believed to travel to and fester in neighboring cities. Scientifically, this was believed by Athanasius Kirchner, a German Jesuit scholar and Polymath, as seen in his medical writings. It was also reinforced by Grotius’ De Rebus Belgicus (1658). In the second account, Grotius annotates that as the whale lay on the sand, its “Bowels burst out, which so infected the Air thereabouts that many of those who went to see it were cast into Diseases by the stench of it and some died.”Excerpt from Hugo Grotius’ _De Rebus Belgicus) in Simon Schama, The Embarrassment of Riches, 130. The allegorical essence of this print intensified after its 1618 reworking by the same artist. This development showed Death embodied by a skeleton on the left, shooting the Maid of Amsterdam with a crossbow. The latter falls from the sky in a defeated manner.“Print”, The British Library. https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/P_1846-0509-271#object-detail-data. However, according to the ambergris-holding pomander, the cure to these ailments could be found in the infector itself. In England, the plague shook society and created a demand for Pomanders. In 1563, London experienced its worst epidemic in centuries when 24% of the population perished. A series of virulent epidemics swept the cities starting in 1499, ultimately culminating in the Great Plague of London of 1665. This specific episode, lasting about a year, killed close to a quarter of London’s population and many more outside the city walls. Once again, disease became a class issue as the wealthy fled to their country homes and the poor were left in the festering city. Epidemic legislation, issued by the Privy Council from 1578 to 1665, remained relatively ineffective. Those who were in charge of handling the dying or the dead tried to prevent infection by wearing beak-shaped masks filled with aromatics. As a result, disease, remedy, and death stayed at the forefront of the collective psyche, placing the Pomander in a crucial and prized role. In summary, ambergris was both a cause and a remedy for pestilence.