Statut de l’image rhétorique et de l’image peinte dans le Pèlerinage de Vie Humaine de Guillaume de Deguileville
Philippe Maupeu
The success of two editions of the “Pèlerinage de vie humaine” (PH1, PH2) by
Guillaume de Deguilleville in the 14th and 15th Centuries has to some extent been
sustained by an abundant iconography. The author himself has in two areas explicitly programmed its illustration: the image of the square of Peace is in the tradition
of Hugues Saint-Victor’s diagrams and that of devotional monastic practice; the
laide beste (ugly beast) Satan is an imago agens soliciting affects on behalf of an art of
memory. In PH2, the author nevertheless expresses his distrust of a poetics of enargeia
which overemphasizes the attraction of the image, whether rhetorical or painted, and
makes the case for a virtuous, word-based “analysis” of the image. But the attractive
strength of the image still operates, and thereby indicates the autonomy of the fiction,
impervious to any edifying interpretation.Keywords :
Deguileville, Enargeia, arts of memory, painted image, rhetorical image.
• 1. Image rhétorique et image peinte
— a. Le jouel de Paix (PH1, 2513-2530 ; cf. PH2, fol. 18 r°, 2752-2789)
— b. La laide beste (PH1, 11465-11482)
• 2. La seconde rédaction du Pèlerinage :
se méfier de quelles images ?
• 3. Images de mémoire et survivance des images