DUTCH ALLEGORICAL PICTURE.
(Vol. vi., pp. 458. 590.)
In answer to the obliging notice which your correspondent Cuthbert Bede (Vol. vi., p. 590.) has taken of my description of the Dutch allegorical picture, I beg to say that I agree with him, and admit myself to be mistaken in supposing the
middle picture described (Vol. vi., p. 458.) to represent St. John Baptist. On examining it again, I have no doubt it is intended to denote the Ascension of our Lord. The right hand is raised as in the act of benediction, and, as far as I can make it out (for the paint is here somewhat rubbed), the fingers are in the position of benediction described by your correspondent. I do not, however, concur in his suggestions as to the meaning of the figures on the frame of the picture; which is not shaped as a vesica piscis, but is (as I described it) a lozenge. The female figure, holding a flaming heart, is, I would say, certainly not the Virgin Mary.
The appearance of my account of this picture in your pages has been the occasion of a very agreeable correspondence with the Editor of the Navorscher (the Dutch daughter of "N. & Q."). That gentleman has taken a great interest in the subject, and has enabled me to decypher the mottoes on the scrolls which run across the three pictures on the right-hand wall of the room, which, in my former communication, I said I was unable to read.
The scroll on the picture nearest the fireplace contains these words:
"Trouw moet blÿcken."
That on the second picture, noticed by Cuthbert Bede, is,
"Liefde boven al."
And the scroll on the third bears the inscription, as I stated in my former communication,
"In Liefd' getrouwe;"
for so it ought to have been printed.
These, as the editor of the Navorscher informs me, are the mottoes of three Haarlem Societies of Rhetoricians called, 1. "De Pelicaen," whose motto was, "Trouw moet blÿcken:" 2. "De Wyngaertrancken," whose motto was, "Liefde boven al:" and, 3. "Witte Angiren," whose device was, "In Liefde getrouwe."
I think you are entitled to have whatever information I may glean respecting this picture, as you so kindly inserted my description of it in your columns; and I have to thank you for procuring me the acquaintance and correspondence of the editor of the Navorscher.
J. H. Todd, D.D.
Trin. Coll. Dublin.