Amyot, Jacques (1513–1593) French bishop and classical
scholar
Born at Melun and educated at Paris university, he became
professor of Latin and Greek at Bourges, where he began
his work of translating classical authors: Heliodorus
(L’Histoire éthiopique, 1548), Longus (Daphnis et Chloé,
1559), and, above all, PLUTARCH. His translation of
Plutarch’s Lives, finally completed under the patronage of
Francis I in 1559, supplied the writers and playwrights of
several generations with characters and situations. Re-
translated into English by Thomas NORTH(1579), this was
Shakespeare’s major source for his Roman plays. Amyot’s
version of Plutarch’s Moralia appeared in 1572, complet-
ing a task that made him deservedly hailed by his con-
temporaries as “le prince des traducteurs.” Favored by
four successive French kings and tutor to two of them,
Amyot was finally made bishop of Auxerre in 1570, where
he spent the rest of his life.
Anabaptists A variety of separate religious movements
on the radical wing of the REFORMATION. The Anabaptists
emerged from the underprivileged layers of society, often
with exceptionally radical social, economic, and religious
programs. Features common to all included the practice of
adult baptism (hence the term “Anabaptists,” coined by
their enemies), a belief in continual revelation, and a doc-
trine of separation from the unconverted. Consequently
they gained a reputation as dangerous revolutionaries, in-
tent on the destruction of the established social and reli-
gious order.
Anabaptist activity in Münster (1532–35) marks the
peak of their political influence. Religious radicals such as
the preacher Bernhard Rothmann (c. 1495–c. 1535) and
the merchant Bernhard Knipperdollinck (c. 1490–1536)
combined to turn Münster into an Anabaptist city, a situ-
ation temporarily condoned by Landgrave PHILIP OF HESSE.
The existing order in Münster was overthrown in 1534 by
Dutch Anabaptists led by Jan Matthysz., a baker of Haar-
lem, and John of Leyden (Jan Leyden) who hoped to turn
the city into a New Jerusalem from which the spiritual
conquest of the world could be directed. Matthysz. or-
dered the confiscation of all property and destruction of
all books except the Bible. His followers’ iconoclasm
brought about the destruction of much of Münster’s her-
itage of religious art. The prince-bishop besieged the city,
and Matthysz. was killed during a sortie (April 1534).
John of Leyden then proclaimed himself “king” and intro-
duced polygamy. The prince-bishop captured the city in
June 1535, and the following January the surviving Ana-
baptist leaders were tortured and executed. The end of the
Anabaptist “kingdom” of Münster was not the end of
Anabaptism, which had extended into other parts of
northern and central Europe. The chief centers of activity
were Saxony, Zürich, Augsburg and the upper Danube,
Austria, Moravia, the Tyrol, Poland, Lithuania, Italy, the
lower Rhine, and the Netherlands. Groups in these places
often held differing doctrinal views, although united in
their rejection of infant baptism. Menno Simons (see MEN-
NONITES) was the leader of one such group. Others were
the Melchiorites or Hoffmanites (called after their leader
Melchior Hoffman) in the Netherlands; the Hutterites
(after their leader Jakob Hutter) in Moravia; the socalled
Zwickau Prophets in Saxony; and the Swiss Brethren. All
were liable to often savage persecution from their Catholic
and Protestant neighbors.
See also: MILLENARIANISM
Further reading: James M. Stayer, The German Peas-
ants’ War and Anabaptist Community of Goods (Montreal,
Canada and London: McGill-Queen’s University Press,
1991).anamorphosis In art, an image distorted in such a way
that it only becomes recognizable when viewed from a
particular angle or under certain other conditions. The
transliteration of the Greek word (meaning “transforma-
tion”) did not appear until the 18th century, but is gener-
ally used to refer to earlier compositions. Plato (Sophist,
236) was the first to make mention of the idea. It was re-
introduced explicitly by Daniele BARBAROin his Pratica
della perspettiva, published in Venice in 1568/69, with the
following definition: “Often, and with no less pleasure
than amazement, one may gaze on some of those pictures
or cards showing perspectives in which, if the eye of s/he
who looks at them be not placed at a particular point,
something totally different from what is depicted appears,
but, contemplated afterwards from its correct angle,
the subject is revealed according to the painter’s original
intention.”
For the painter, anamorphosis is a special application
of the laws of perspective. Shapes are projected outside
themselves and dislocated in such a way that they re-form
when they are seen from another viewpoint. The practice
of anamorphosis shows that artistic technique could have
other aims than that of restoring a third dimension (the
sole aim recognized in ALBERTI’s treatises). The “curious”
perspective of anamorphosis is, rather, a stimulus to fan-
tasy and an illustration of the fleeting, oblique nature of
pictorial truth. The earliest examples of the technique in
the Renaissance are met with in the notebooks of
LEONARDO DA VINCI. The two best-known examples of
anamorphosis in painting are the skull in HOLBEIN’s Am-
bassadors (1533; National Gallery, London) and Guilim
(William) Scrots’s portrait of the future King EDWARD VI
(1546; National Portrait Gallery, London). The latter, dis-
played at Whitehall Palace, apparently had some special
viewing device attached to it to enable the head to be seen
in correct perspective.
Further reading: Jurgis Baltrusaitis, Anamorphic Art,
transl. W. J. Strachan (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1977);
Ernest B. Gilman, The Curious Perspective: Literary andaannaammoorrpphhoossiiss 1155