Word & Image: |
on exhibit January 23 - May 22, 2004 |
PersonificationsPersonified abstractions such as the Virtues and the Seven Deadly Sins were part of a long visual tradition inherited by Trevelyon and his contemporaries. These figures and their customary attributes were familiar to all, appearing on title pages, as single woodcuts and engravings, in wall paintings, and on tapestries. Trevelyon's personifications were derived from engravings by Marten de Vos, Philippe Galle, and Hans Sebald Beham. |
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The moral precepts implicit in images of the Seven Deadly sins were instantly recognizable. The peacock, known for its pride and vanity, almost always accompanied the figure of Pride, whose mirror also symbolized the dangers of vanity. Frequently shown with a rider falling from it, the horse was a reminder that "Pride" (as the accompanying Biblical texts remind us) "goeth before destruction." |
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The nine Muses
were the daughters of Jupiter, Euterpe, muse
of music, is surrounded by wind instruments. Her name means "to
delight," |
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| The objects that accompany the figures representing the Seven Liberal Arts, or Sciences, are explained by the text below them. Grammar, for instance, who "teacheth men to speake aptlye," carries a tablet containing the alphabet, while Arithmetic "teaches men to number" with her tablet. Rhetoric teaches men to embellish their talk, or "to set manye colours upon a littell peice of woode." | |
Word and Image: The Trevelyon Miscellany of 1608
Exhibition HighlightsThomas Trevelyon: the man and his sources | History and Religion | Calendars and Calculations | Memento Mori | Proverbs | The Old Testament | Lettering | A Quest for Order | Women | Astronomy | Personifications | Embroidery
This page updated March 30, 2004