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184 Allegorical Figures & Symbols

The Merchant Georg Gisze Hans Holbein the Younger

1532, oil on oak, SMPK, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, Germany

A lthough it was painted in London, England, neither the sitter nor the artist were English, and, indeed, they probably
conversed in Middle Low German while The Merchant Georg Gisze was taking shape. It was important to both men
that it had the “wow factor,” Gisze wanting to impress his fiancée back home, as well as his business associates, with a por-
trait in which he appeared both authoritative and prosperous, and the German-born Holbein, who had recently arrived in
England from Basle, in Switzerland, in search of work, hoping that it would trigger a flood of lucrative commissions.The
portrait must have fulfilled all expectations, for it is recorded that Gisze was married three years later in his Baltic home-
town, and that Holbein was employed by King Henry VIII of England in 1536. The Merchant Georg Gisze is a rewarding
picture for the twenty-first-century viewer to study, too, partly because its photographic quality is as impressive today as it
was in 1532, partly because the everyday objects that surround him make the long-dead Gisze (1497–1562) seem more of
a real person, and partly because it gives us an extraordinary insight into how offices looked nearly six hundred years ago.
As a merchant from Danzig—today known as Gdansk—a town that belonged to the Hanseatic League (a powerful,
northern European trade confederation), Gisze’s business was international, and by 1532, it had taken him to London,
where he lived and worked tax-free with other German merchants in the Thames-side Steelyard complex. Being based in
London for a few years must have been good for trade, but can’t have been a particularly comfortable existence, not least
because only bachelors were permitted to reside at the Steelyard.This explains the presence of the Venetian-glass vase filled
with flowers—an otherwise rather incongruous touch in a trader’s office—for according to the conventions of the time,
carnations denoted engagement, leading one to surmise that Gisze had his likeness painted as a gift for his bride-to-be,
and that Holbein included the flowers as a tribute to her.

See also Flowers (pages 129–30).

An intricately decorated string

A pair of scales and a signet, or
seal, counterbalanced by a ball
of amber (for which the Baltic
region is renowned) hang from a
shelf. Holbein has included Gisze’s
personal motto to the left: Nulla
sine merore voluptas, or “No joy
without sadness” when translated
from the Latin, which may refer
to his separation from his fiancée.
dispenser hangs alongside a pair
of signet rings and a set of keys
that probably provide access to
the goods in Gisze’s stockroom.
Pinned to the wall, as though
it were an office memo, is an
important statement written
in Latin (then the international
language of both business and
posterity) and a little Greek.
Distichon I Imagine Georgii Gysenii
Ista, refert vultus, qua cernis, Imago
Georgi Sic oculos viuos, sic habet
ille genas Anno aetatis suae xxxiiij
Anno dom 1532, it says, which
means: “Look at the portrait
of George Gisze.What you
see here shows his features and
figure; his eyes and cheeks look
exactly as they do in life. In his
A number of red seals have been thirty-fourth year, in the year
tucked behind a batten, alongside of our Lord 1532.”
the letters whose contents they
once kept private. Some of the
writing is legible, such as In Jurge
zu Basel 1531, or “From George
in Basle 1531” (could this have
been a letter recommending
Holbein to Gisze?)
continued overleaf
Allegorical Figures & Symbols 185
186 Allegorical Figures & Symbols
Arrayed on the expensive
Oriental carpet that serves as
a tablecloth are a brass timepiece,
which suggests both that time
passes quickly and that its owner,
like it, is well-regulated, or
disciplined; a signet; writing
implements, sticks of sealing wax,
a sand-shaker with which to
dry wet ink and a pile of loose
change (or wax disks) in a pewter
stand; and a pair of scissors.
One of Gisze’s numerous signet
rings also lies on the table: used
to imprint a symbol of personal
or corporate identity on molten
The document that Gisze is
holding is a letter addressed to
Dem Erszamen Jorgen gisze to
lunden in engelant mynem broder to
handen (the Middle Low German
for, “To the honorable George
Gisze in London, England.To
be given into his hands.”)
During this period, carnations in a
vase represented engagement (the
underlying symbolism was
probably to do with future
children, for a water-filled vase
can signify the fertile womb, and
pink flowers, the babies that it
sustains). Rosemary, a few sprigs
of which can be discerned here,
symbolizes remembrance––an
appropriate floral message
to send to Danzig.
sealing wax, it may be that
Gisze handed them to his
representatives to use, or that
he himself acted as the agent for
many different concerns, whose
seals he was therefore entrusted
with as a sign that authority had
been delegated to him.
 Allegorical Figures & Symbols 187

Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife

(“The Arnolfini Portrait”) Jan van Eyck

1434, oil on wood, National Gallery, London, England

T he question mark that casts doubt upon the identity of the man portrayed in the painting perhaps provisionally entitled
Portrait of Giovanni Arnolfini and his Wife (“The Arnolfini Portrait”) is by no means the only query that art historians have
raised in relation to this image. Indeed, the more one delves into the theories that it has generated, the more of an enigma it
becomes, so that in the end, the only certainty is that this Early Netherlandish masterpiece was painted by Jan van Eyck, who
positioned his brush above the round mirror and signed his work with a flourish. Or did he? For rather than following artis-
tic convention and using the conventional Latin wording Johannes de Eyck fecit, or “Jan van Eyck made this,” the artist instead
wrote Johannes de Eyck fuit hic, 1434, or “Jan van Eyck was here, 1434,” which does not necessarily mean the same thing.
Although it was thought to depict a mar-
ried or betrothed couple, little was known
about this painting until a sixteenth-century
inventory, written in French, was discovered
that appeared to refer to it as “A big panel
painting, Hernoult le Fin with his wife in a
room.” Van Eyck was working in Bruges,
one of the most important ports in the
duchy of Burgundy (and, indeed, the
world), in 1434. Searches of the city archives
revealed two potential candidates for the
fur-draped man: the brothers Arnolfini (the
Italian equivalent of the French “Hernoult
le Fin”), namely Giovanni di Arrigo, or di
Nicolao, and Michele, scions of a wealthy
merchant and banking family from Lucca,
Italy, who had taken up residence in Bruges
to conduct business with Philip the Good,
Duke of Burgundy (who was also van
Eyck’s patron). The records reveal that
Giovanni married Giovanna Cenami, the
daughter of another Italian financier, and the
wealth inherent in such a union, along with
the evident prosperity of the bedchamber
depicted in such intricate detail by van
Eyck, has led scholars to claim that the
painting commemorates their wedding.
Others, however, insist that it is simply a
double portrait of a well-to-do husband and
wife.The debate will no doubt continue, but
for the moment it seems safe to say that the
symbolic messages contained in this image
allude to the ideal Christian marriage.

See also The Virgin Mary (page 76),

Margaret of Antioch (page 80), Crucifixion
of Christ (pages 114–15), Dog (page 136).
188 Allegorical Figures & Symbols
That only one candle is burning in
such a handsome chandelier, and in
such a well-ordered household
is a mystery. Art historians’ best
guess is that the single flame
conforms to Christian convention
in symbolizing Christ’s divine
illumination, or all-seeing eye, or
else may signify faith, one
of the three theological virtues.
The brush hanging by the
bed would have been used
for dusting, and thus
signifies a disciplined
The lady may appear pregnant, housekeeper and
but a comparison with other a clean, well-
northern European run household.
paintings of this period
reveals that even saintly
virgins were portrayed
with protruding abdomens,
indicating that this body
shape was then considered
the ideal for young
women, as were
voluminous gowns
fashioned from
heavy fabrics.
Oranges imported from the
Iberian Peninsula would have
been expensive luxuries in
fifteenth-century Bruges, so
their inclusion in the painting
emphasizes the household’s
wealth. In symbolic terms,
oranges can denote fertility,
while orange blossom represents
virginity and blushing brides.
A rosary (or two) hangs on the
wall. Rosaries aid the memory
when at prayer, and consequently
denote piety. And because rosaries
can represent the Virgin Mary, the
“rose” of heaven, they may also
refer to Christianity’s ideal
feminine, a role model to which
fifteenth-century women were
encouraged to aspire. It appears that the
man has kicked
Ten medallions, each off his pattens
portraying a scene (the wooden clogs that protect
from Christ’s his stockings while out and about
Passion, with the in the filthy streets on business),
Crucifixion at the while the lady’s red slippers can
top, surround a be seen lying higgledy-piggledy
convex mirror, again in the background. Because they
suggesting piety, as well as strike such untidy notes in an
feminine purity, for the Virgin otherwise formal composition,
Mary was often likened to a supporters of the wedding theory
“spotless mirror.” Zoom in on have speculated that they refer to
the mirror, and we can see the God’s Old Testament injunction
reflections of two additional to “put off thy shoes from off thy
people (witnesses to a wedding, feet, for the place whereon thou
maybe?), a male figure in red and standest is holy ground” (Exodus
a turbaned man in blue, who may 3:5), their argument being that
be van Eyck himself. because marriage is one of the
sacraments of the Church, it
The wooden finial on the takes place on sacred ground.
bedhead has been carved
into a representation of St.
Margaret of Antioch and the
dragon.The saint’s escape
from the dragon’s stomach caused
her to be invoked by women in
childbirth, who prayed for an
easy labor at a time when
children were almost invariably
born in the marital bed.
Like all canines, the
little dog symbolizes
faithfulness, and
because, being a
lapdog, it belongs to
the lady of the house,
wifely fidelity in
particular.
190 Allegorical Figures & Symbols

La Pia dei Tolomei Dante Gabriel Rossetti

1880, oil on canvas, Spencer Museum of Art, Lawrence, Kansas, USA

T he English artist Dante Gabriel Rossetti paid homage to two of his great loves in his painting La Pia: the work of
the poet Dante Alighieri (1265–1321), from whom he derived his first name and whose Italian heritage he shared;
and Janey Morris (née Burden), the wife of his Pre-Raphaelite “brother,”William Morris.
Dante Alighieri immortalized the character of La Pia (Italian for “the pious woman”) in Part II, Purgatorio (“Purgatory”),
of his epic poem Divina Commedia (“Divine Comedy”), of 1321. In the fifth canto (lines 130–6), Dante relates that when
he encountered the soul of La Pia in purgatory (for she had died without absolution), she implored him to “Remember
me who am La Pia, me from Siena sprung and by Maremma dead. This in his innermost heart well knoweth he, with
whose fair jewel I was ringed and wed.” Dante’s Italian contemporaries would have been familiar with the true story of
La Pia, of the family of Tolomei, a noblewoman from Siena whose husband, Nello della Pietra dei Pannocchieschi, was
responsible for her death in 1295, some say due to his jealousy on account of her adultery, and others, so that he would
be free to marry the Countess Margherita degli Aldobrandeschi. Although there is also some disagreement as to the exact
manner of La Pia’s death––one version of the tragic tale telling us that illness killed her, another asserting that she was
thrown from a window to her death––it is agreed that she met her untimely end in the unhealthy, marshy region of the
Sienese Maremma, in Tuscany, and specifically at the Castello della Pietra, or Pietra Castle, where her husband had impris-
oned her. In portraying the unhappy, rejected La Pia with the features of Janey Morris, Rossetti may have been hinting
that he was longing to act as Janey’s knight in shining armor in liberating her from a marriage that,
he felt, had become her prison, and from a husband who had become her jailor.

See also Plants (pages 130–31), Birds (pages 138–40).

A clamor of rooks (birds of the

crow family) flies through leaden
skies past the brooding La Pia.
The bundle Like all noisy, black, carrion-
of weapons eating birds, rooks are said to
over which her portend death. Scholars believe
husband’s standard is that by depicting these birds,
draped represents the Rossetti was also referring to the
violence that could be section in his poem Sunset Wings
used against La Pia should she try (1871) that starts, “And now the
to escape.They could furthermore mustering rooks innumerable /
be interpreted as phallic symbols Together sail and soar, / While
on account of their elongated for the day’s death, like a tolling
forms, or, because they are tridents, knell, / Unto the heart they seem
as the pitchforks wielded by Satan’s to cry, Farewell, / No more, Love letters lie beneath an open
demons in hell. farewell, no more!” prayer book.The letters denote
“old news,” while the prayer book
Like all instruments that measure the passage of time, the and rosary that acts as a bookmark
sundial alludes to the passing of human life, which moves suggest that the contrast between
closer to death with every hour that passes.The gnomon the memories that the letters
is decorated with a wheel of fortune, a symbol of the have evoked and her current Lost in
fickleness of fate that can reverse the fortunes of circumstances have thought, La
anyone and everyone in a driven the pious Pia toys with her
matter of seconds. lady to seek wedding ring, the “fair
solace and jewel” with which her husband
strength “ringed” her, or claimed
in her ownership of her, on the
faith. occasion of their marriage.
The fig leaves to the
lonely lady’s left
represent potential
fruitfulness, which
is doomed to
remain unfulfilled,
while the evergreen
ivy on her right may symbolize
the memories to which La Pia
clings, or else her undying fidelity
(because it attaches itself to
solid structures, ivy was
once regarded as a
symbol of married women
who depended on their
husbands for support).
The bell in the castle’s belfry adds
to the ominous atmosphere,
suggesting that it won’t be long
before it tolls a funeral knell for
La Pia.The fortress of which it
is a part is a place and symbol
of imprisonment, but in other
contexts, castles can denote
defensiveness, security and
protection from hostile aggressors.
In psychology, a princess
languishing within a castle can
represent both long-sought-after
enlightenment and an object
of sexual desire. In addition, a
black castle in which a solitary
occupant is incarcerated may
represent hopelessness, failure and
hell.Towers, too, have symbolic
significance: as watch-towers, they
denote vigilance, and, as soaring
structures, spiritual or intellectual
elevation; their shape can also
cause them to be phallic symbols,
while in Christian iconography,
they may signify chastity.