Fruit and Fertility: Fruit Symbolism in Netherlandish Portraiture of the Sixteenth and

Seventeenth Centuries
Author(s): Jan Baptist Bedaux
Source: Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art , 1987, Vol. 17, No. 2/3
(1987), pp. 150-168
Published by: Stichting Nederlandse Kunsthistorische Publicaties

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3780667

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150

Fruit and fertility: fruit symbolism in Netherlandish

portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries*

Jan Baptist Bedaux

In I628 Elizabeth Stuart commissioned Gerrit Hont-
horst to paint a larger than life-size portrait of her family
(fig. i). This picture, which was meant as a gift for her
brother Charles I of England, tends to be regarded
nowadays as a scene from Honore d'Urfes L'Astre'e.'
But whether or not the aristocratic family portrait was
inspired by this pastoral tale, there can be little doubt as
to the theme depicted. The immense statue of Mother
Nature laden with fruit, to which the father, Friedrich
von der Pfalz, calls our attention, immediately suggests
fertility. The father's demonstrative gesture communi-
cates a certain pride in his progeny, who are abundantly
present in the picture.
This is by no means the only painting from the period
attesting to reproductive success. Fertility, it may well
be argued, is the leitmotiv of a great number of sixteenth raising a bunch of grapes by the stem to virginity, a
and seventeenth-century family portraits, and was de-
picted in various ways. It was a recurrent motif particu-
larly in the bourgeois portrait, although fertility there
was usually visualized on a slightly more modest scale.
Instead of monumental statues of Mother Nature we
find a well-filled fruit basket, an object more in keeping
with the domestic ambience of this sort of portrait (figs.
2, 3).
Until now, the fruit basket as a symbol of fertility has
been sadly neglected in iconological literature. What did
receive special attention, however, was a specific fruit,
the grape, which, parenthetically, was also frequently
taken from the fruit basket by seventeenth-century man
himself (fig. 4). Curiously enough, Eddy de Jongh in his
influential 1974 article related the gesture of the hand

* The material published here was first presented in a lecture deliver-

pastoral setting of the painting became the guiding principle. Braun
ed in Utrecht before the Stichting Postuniversitair Kunsthistorisch
Onderzoek in December I985. I am greatly indebted to Jeroen Stum-
pel for his critical reading of the manuscript, and I would also like to
thank Dr Hans Vlieghe for his attribution of the Portrait of a family in
king and queen ought to be given a prominent part" ("Honthorst
fig. 3 to Jan Boeckhorst. The article was translated from the Dutch by
Wim Honders.
I would also refer to two articles that appeared after my manuscript
was completed: Peter Hecht, "The debate on symbol and meaning in
Dutch seventeenth-century art: an appeal to common sense," Simiolus
I6 (I986), pp. 173-87, in which the author arrives at the same conclu-
sion regarding Jan van Bylert's Merry company, and Wayne Franits,
"The family saying grace: a theme in Dutch art of the seventeenth
century," Simiolus I6 (I986), pp. 36-49. This theme is discussed in
my article, albeit with an entirely different objective.
I For the painting see Hermann Braun, Gerard und Willem van
Honthorst, Gottingen I966 (diss.), p. 46 and cat. nr. 83. In the catalo-
gue of Charles's collection made between I 637 and I 640 the portrait is
meiitioned as being "in manner of storie." This addition proved to be
misleading, and prompted a search for a fitting story, in which the
states (p. 229): "Honthorst derived the scene from the end of the tale.
In doing so, he is more interested in catching the atmosphere of 'per
aspera ad astra,' than in a close rendering of the text. Moreover, it was
not possible to stick to the text, since the children of the Bohemian
entlehnt die Szene dem Schluss des Romans. Dabei trifft er unter dem
Aspekt 'per aspera ad astra' mehr die Stimmung, als dass er sich
allzusehr an den Text halt. Dieses war ohnehin nicht moglich, da den
Kindern des bohmischen Konigspaares eine entscheidende Rolle zu-
kommen sollte"). This in itself seems to me to be ample reason not to
consider this novel as a possible source for the scene. Besides, "storie"
need not imply more than figuurstuk (figure painting). For historie in
the sense of figuurstuk see Hessel Miedema, Karel van Mander: den
grondt der edel vry schilder-const, Utrecht 1973, vol. I, p. 126, and vol.
2, pp. 462-63. The interpretation based on d'Urfe was recently adop-
ted (albeit with some reservations) by Alison McNeil Kettering in her
The Dutch arcadia: pastoral art and its audience in the golden age, Mont-
clair & Woodbridge I983, pp. 67, IOI, 172.

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 I5'

Lj _ I' L KSg

iGerard van Honthorst, Portrait of the family of Elizabeth and Frederick

Bohemia, i629. Hannover, Collection Prince Ernst August von Hannov

quality which, at first glance, seems to be completely at
odds with fertility and procreation.2 What accounted for
this particular interest in the bunch of grapes, and the
way in which it was explained, was the use of a motif
from emblem literature in the interpretation. De Jongh
established a connection between the gesture with the
grapes and two emblems by Jacob Cats, which indeed
show a suggestive formal correspondence (figs. 5, 6).
Before dealing in greater detail with the meaning which
de Jongh thought he might attribute to a large group of
portraits on the basis of these emblems, I should first
like to discuss in a more general sense this formal corres- group of paintings, it nonetheless suggested to many a
pondence between paintings and emblems, as I feel that
this affinity has proved rather too suggestive, not only
here but in a great many other studies of seventeenth-
century Dutch painting as well.
EMBLEM AND INTERPRETATION Since the early
I960S art historians working in the field of Netherlan-
dish painting of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries
have made an increasing use of emblem literature. This
tendency can largely be traced back to Eddy de Jongh's
classic Zinne- en minnebeelden in de schilderkunst van de
zeventiende eeuw of I967, which dealt primarily with the
relationship between emblems and paintings.3 Although
de Jongh expressly stated that, in the interests of accessi-
bility, the study confined itself both to interpretation
from the viewpoint of emblem literature and to a select
scholar that seventeenth-century painting largely sprang
from emblem literature, and could therefore be inter-
preted with the help of this literary genre. De Jongh's
good advice against the incautious use of emblem litera-

2 E. dc jongh, "Grape symbolism in paintings of the i6th and i7th remalerei in das klassische Bezugsfeld des 'docere et delectare' einord-
centuries," Simiolus 7 (974), pp. I66-9I. In recent years, literaturenet"). The characterization of this interpretive method as an "em-
dealing with the interpretation of seventeenth-century Dutch painting blematic interpretation" is extremely unfortunate, as it wrongly sug-
has frequently referred to the "emblematic interpretation." What this gests that the interpretation is invariably based on emblem literature,
method sets out to do, and I quote from Hans-Joachim Raupp, "An- and that emblem books caused the production of the paintings. It is
satze zu einer Theorie der Genremalerei in den Niederlanden im 17. more correct to confine the term "emblematic interpretation" to those
Jahrhundert," Zeitschrift fir Kunstgeschichte 46 (I983), p. 401, cases
is to in which an interpretation has actually made use of emblem
"decipher layers of meaning and literary allusions hidden in paintings, literature.
and to relate the significance of genre painting to the classical concept 3 E. de Jongh, Zinne- en minnebeelden in de schilderkunst van de I 7de
of 'docere et delectare"' ("in den Bildern verborgene Sinnschichten eeuw, Amsterdam I967.
und literarische Anspielungen zu entziffern und die Aufgabe der Gen-

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152 JAN BAPTIST BEDAUX

il 'li - 'i-' ' ' '. . . . . . . . . .

2 Anonymous, Portrait ofa

_L l _Z~~~~~~~iU
3 Jan Boeckhorst, Portrait

_ - _ - _~~~~~

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Fruit symbolism in Netherlandish portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries I53

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I1S_! Wwuq Ei~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... ...

': . : . ..... Z.
I .. .... ...e9>9 .. . .....

4 Emanuel de Witte, Portrait of a family, signed and dated i1678. Munich, Bayerische
'~~~~~~~
Staatsgemaldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek ~ ~~~~~ NA N' i__l_ s
18~~~~~~idebr ii6i8 J
| ali I ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ .Seick()atrAran a eVne . wlnkatrArie a eVne
"Ca ofam eiae _oalcat adn. Hnri rgl. mlmfo ao as
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Midlbr i6i

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 154 JAN BAPTIST BEDAUX

ture as a clavis interpre

One phenomenon that occurs on the interpretive level
vent art historians, armed with Henkel and Schone's is that of pictorial homonymy. This means that even
emblematic dictionary, from being content when they when representation and emblem are formally con-
discovered that a certain emblem was formally con- gruous, they may have widely different meanings. It is
gruent with a specific representation. As soon as such a this homonymic trap of which the iconologist should
formal correspondence occurred, the emblem's meaning particularly beware. A fine example of such a mistaken
would be projected onto the representation in question, homonymic reading is the interpretation of Jan van By-
without much regard for its context, such as the icono- lert's Merry company using an emblem from Johan de
graphic family to which a painting belonged. Brune's Emblemata ofzinne-werck (figs. 7, 8). 1 The pret-
It is important that we should be aware of the various zel being pulled by two figures in the picture to see who
relationships that may exist between the emblem and the will receive the longer end, is de Brune's symbol of tran-
representation to be interpreted. Moreover, these rela- sient life and of spiritually twisted man who occupies a
tionships operate on two distinct levels which are quite position between God and the devil. In this particular
frequently confused. One is the level of interpretation, case the emblem imposed itself to such an extent that it
the other that of the analysis of a representation's origin. affected the way the painting was perceived. What was
To take the second point first, a representation may in- overlooked was the very point of the picture, namely that
deed at times owe its origin to an emblem, but compared the woman is pulling at the pretzel with two fingers
to the total output of genre pieces, portraits with acces- instead of one-a point that is underscored by the figure
sories, and still lifes, this is an entirely negligible cate- on the extreme right. So in the case of the van Bylert we
gory. On the other hand, the scholarly successes from are not dealing with a unique iconography-which in
tracing such direct relationships are inversely propor- itself would be enough to set one thinking-but with a
tionate to the representativeness of this category, and scene that ranks among the larger iconographic group of
they have consequently helped to create a distorted women's wiles.6
image of seventeenth-century painting and the way in Instances of pictorial homonymy are not always easy
which painters set about their work. to spot, but I would like to consider one specific instance
Another factor in the analysis of a representation's in greater detail.
origin is that the relationship might be indirect, with
both representation and emblem deriving from a com- THE BUNCH OF GRAPES AS A SYMBOL OF (SECOND)

mon source. Numerous examples of this are to be found
in the catalogue Tot lering en vermaak,4 where more thanpaintings of the i6th and i7th centuries," establishes a
two-thirds of the interpretations in which emblem lit-
erature was somehow referred to dealt with emblems
that did not serve as a clavis interpretandi, but were
merely included because of their rhetorical quality. It
was largely due to the suggestive impact of the formal
congruence between emblem and representation that in
many cases a direct relationship must have suggested
itself to the reader. The distinction between a direct and
an indirect relationship may not be relevant to the inter-
pretation, but it certainly is to the analysis of origin.
VIRGINITY De Jongh's article, "Grape symbolism in
direct relationship between bunches of grapes in pic-
tures and two emblems by Jacob Cats.7 It concerns
a pseudo-emblematic coat of arms "dedicated to all
chaste maidens," which first appeared in i6i8 in Maech-
den-plicht (The maiden's duty), and as a true emblem in
the same work with the motto "Eer is teer" ("Honor is
fragile;" figs. 5, 6).8 In I625 Cats transferred this coat of
arms to his great didactic poem Houwelick (Marriage),
namely to its second chapter entitled "Vryster" (Spin-
ster; fig. 9).9 In each case the meaning is identical. The

4 E. de Jongh, et al., exhib. cat. Tot lering en vermaak: betekenissen lering en vermaak, cit. (note 4), nr. IO, 35, 65.
van Hollandse genrevoorstellingen uit de zeventiende eeuw, Amsterdam 7 De Jongh, op. cit. (note 2).
(Rijksmuseum) 1976. 8 Jacob Cats, Maechden-plicht ofie ampt der ionk-vrouwen, in eerbaer
5 Ibid., pp. 68-71 (cat. nr. i i). liefde, aenghewesen door sinne-beelden, Middelburg i6i8, "Wapen-
6 Cf. for example the small and large series of Vrouwenlisten schilt alle eerbare maeghden toe-ghe-eyghent," and pp. 54-55.
(Women's wiles) by Lucas van Leyden (exhib. cat. Lucas van Leyden- 9 Idem, Houwelick: dat is de gansche gelegentheyt des echten staets,
grafiek: met een complete oeuvre-catalogus van zijn gravures, etsen enMiddelburg I625, "Vryster", p. [v].
houtsneden, Amsterdam (Rijksmuseum) 1978, pp. 140-41), and Tot

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Fruit symbolism in Netherlandish portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries I55

x x.
D cs menfcbhes lven is cen (trij d
Dic noyt als merden meafch cn hij.

7 Jan van Bijlert, Merry company, signed. Utrecht, Centraal 8 Emblem from Johan de Brune, Emblemata of
Museum zi'nne-werck, Amsterdam 1624

where a bunch of grapes is held up by a woman's hand

bunch of grapes symbolizes the virginity of the girl yet
unwed, its stem representing marriage. The hand gras-But then the emblem can only be used in a mutilated
form by ignoring the role of the problematical hand.
ping the stem, in its turn, stands for the man who may
make a maid his own only through marriage. This me- Such a gross generalization of Cats's lines and image
taphor derives from the custom of holding a bunch of leaves the act of holding a bunch of grapes signifyin
grapes by its stem to avoid smudging the fruit. The same little more than the advertisement of virginity in general.
holds true for the unmarried girl. If she is possessed Even in this diluted form, though a new problem arises
otherwise than through marriage she will lose her vir- since many of the women in these pictures are mothers
ginity, which will inevitably tarnish her social reputa- and are obviously no longer virgins. In order to over
tion. come this problem we have to create a secondary hypo
Assuming, with de Jongh, that the bunch of grapes as thesis in which the concept of virginity and motherhood
a portrait accessory should be interpreted in this way, we are no longer contradictory. De Jongh discovered thi
immediately run into a number of problems which possibility in the last two lines of Vryster-wapen (Th
should in themselves be enough to make us altogether spinster's coat of arms), where Cats states that a woman
abandon the emblem when interpreting this accessory. even if she is married and a mother, may remain a virgin,
One of those problems is that the vast majority of such provided she "gives herself in pure love without stain"
grapes are held by women, whereas in Cats it is a man's (haer [maeghdom] onbevleckt in reyne liefdc draeght)
hand that performs the act. Aside from children, I know Cats took this thesis from Calvin's Institutions, who in
of no more than three cases in which bunches of grapes turn had derived it from John Chrysostom. Calvin fails
are held by men. They, however, are depicted with their to specify the sex when he refers to this second virginit
wives and offspring (fig. 4). Should we then interpret the preserved within marriage, allowing de Jongh to con
grapes as advertising the fact that the man married his clude that the concept appears to be equally valid for
wife when she was still a virgin? To my mind it is highly both men and women. That, however, does not alter the
unlikely that such a retrospective view would have been fact that Cats reserved his coat of arms in Maechden-
depicted. De Jongh must have been of the same opinion, plicht and "Vryster" exclusively for unmarried, virgin
for he does not even consider such an interpretation, girls, and not for mothers, let alone fathers. Moreover,
although it would have been the most literal approach to Cats's pronouncement in the closing lines of Vryster-
the emblem's original intent. wapen that a girl who is finally "picked"-in other
Instead, he adjusts the meaning of the emblem to the words who has entered into marriage-may remain a
situation most frequently found in painting, namely virgin on certain conditions, cannot conceal that Vry-

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 JAN BAPTIST BEDAUX

have designed a separate coat of arms "dedicated to all

* . .. RYSTEIR Et WAEN
honest youths" (alle eerlicke jongmans toegeeygent; fig.
i i). Moreover, the lines accompanying this coat of arms,
which shows a tongue supported by vine-tendrils, leave
no doubt whatsoever that van Beverwyck intended it as
a male pendant to Cats's Vryster-wapen. Incidentally,
Mi s ..~~ ~~~~~~~~.l ... ... . the problem presented by the individual boy's portrait is
not raised by de Jongh, who confines himself to family
x:202~~~ portraits with boys holding bunches of grapes. De Jongh
argues that in such contexts boys figure as armorial sup-
porters displaying the blazon of their parents' second
virginity and the related concept of fertility.

SECOND VIRGINITY AND FERTILITY We have

managed to stray far from Cats's original intention with

his Vryster-wapen. De Jongh, however, strays even fur-
9 "The spinster's coat of arms." Illustration ther when he asserts that Cats was able to transform the
from Jacob Cats, Houwelick, Middelburg I625,
age-old significance of the bunch of grapes as a symbol
"Vryster"
of fertility into one of virginity. Here he bases himself on
ster-wapen is concerned with the first, and not with the
the seventeenth-century view that fertility was a by-pro-
second virginity.
duct of chastity. This compels us to examine these two
We also encounter problems of a different nature
concepts and their alleged ethical interdependence in
when interpreting bunches of grapes in portraits as a
greater detail.
symbol of second virginity. De Jongh, for instance, can-
In de Jongh's view the second virginity, or chastity
not satisfactorily account for those cases in which the
within marriage, depends upon "virtuous love-love,
sitter holds the grapes themselves instead of grasping
according to the Christian tradition, performed with
them by the stem. It is inconceivable that an artist would
procreation in mind," while fertility, he says, is directly
choose to deviate from this one crucial aspect of the
related to the frequency of copulation. He refers to the
emblem, unless these are instances of "iconographic
influential physician Johan van Beverwyck, encountered
erosion." But if that were so, an interpretation based on
above, who claimed that excessive cohabitation would
the emblem would lose its justification.
render male seed infertile. The corollary of this vieuw is
A further implication of de Jongh's theory is that in
that a man is likely to become sterile unless he copulates
portraits of boys depicted with grapes, the child in ques-
with moderation.
tion-although he still possesses his first virginity, to
De Jongh subsequently connects the concepts of
paraphrase de Jongh-is already being prompted to
chastity and fertility by using the general terms "mod-
work on his second virginity (fig. Io). I find this hard to
eration" and "modesty". Needless to say, if a man copu-
accept even in the case of girl's portraits, but to apply it
lates little he will practise "moderation", and it will
to boys is definitely carrying things too far. That Cats's
probably also take "moderation" to have only procre-
bunch of grapes was meant for girls alone can also be in-
ation in mind during coition. But this by no means im-
ferred from Johan van Beverwyck's Van de uutnement-
plies that "moderation" and "modesty" can be treated
heyt des vrouwelicken geslachts (On the excellence of the
on a par. In the former case we are dealing with a medical
female sex). Io If anyone was well-versed in Cats's work
theory supposedly based on frequency, whereas the lat-
and intentions it was van Beverwyck. Not only were he
ter is an ethical theory centered upon intention.
and Cats close friends, but they also worked closely to-
Thus de Jongh's thesis that "the procreation of a large
gether. So if Cats's Vryster-wapen was also intended
family... fulfilled not only the commandment to be fruit-
for boys, it is hardly likely that van Beverwyck would
io Johan van Beverwyck, Van de uutnementheyt des vrouwelicken
io JohanDordrecht
geslachts, van Beverwyck,
i6432, Van de uutnementheyt des vrouwelicken
pp. I77-282.
geslachts, Dordrecht i6432, pp. I77-282.

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Fruit symbolism in Netherlandish portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries I57

W A P E N-S C H1 I . D,
AUuavlickiJ{* l1cgh*iAr :ee-gu,1.ft.

EEn Ge.var. quret tijt heefr e..mcnea uytgegeven

.. Men ti:wen Wa)Z.n-fchiitit de , tke o-eirsf
En hzefcr i n fteict een vwrihca druyven.tros,
'!'fcicf:! teir aes -, orrsT cen fhoonctiln l o

I ii "Coat of arms dedicated to all honest youths."

Illustration from Johan van Beverwyck, Van de
uutnementheyt des vrouwelicken geslachts,
Dordrecht I643
-~~~~~~
from the sources, but on logical grounds, we must resort
to casuistry to demonstrate that we are here dealing with
a fallacy. Unfortunately, the lack of data makes it impos-
sible to judge whether seventeenth-century man would
have reasoned differently.
Besides, it is highly questionable whether the fertility
of the seed and the frequency of copulation were as
strongly related as the author would have us believe. ' 2
Io Attributed What
to is of greater
Jacob importance is that the concept of
Jansz C
the van the second virginity and the strict views on whatdated
Riebeeckfamily, "vir-
tuous love" entailed in the seventeenth century do not
ful and tie in with de Jongh's assertions. "The
multiply butmoralists of the als
be I7th century,How
sustained. with their variety of religious
about beliefs, may
consequently fertile but who loves his wife "as if she have differed with each other on subordinate issues,"1
were an adulterous woman" (als of sy een overspelige according to de Jongh, "but when it came down to the
vrouwe ware), to quote the Reformed Pietist Petrus essentials they saw eye to eye: the only conceivable justi-
Wittewrongel?"I In such a case the marital bed would fication for sex, they agreed, was procreation." This the-
definitely be tainted without affecting fertility what- sis seems untenable to me. The Augustinian view that
soever. sexual intercourse was free from sin only if it resulted
Since de Jongh does not deduce the ethical interde- from a desire for offspring, which caused cohabitation to
pendence between the concepts of fertility and chastity become inextricably linked with procreation, was gen-

i i For Wittewrongel's view on cohabitation see L. F. Groenendijk,lation and the quantity of the seed. Van Beverwyck, Schat der gesont-
heyt, Dordrecht I6403, p. 591, is the only one who seems to discuss the
De nadere reformatie van het gezin: de visie van Petrus Wittewrongel op
de christelyke huishouding, Dordrecht I984, pp. 82-83. relationship meant by de Jongh. However, the passage in question is
I2 Here de Jongh quotes as possible sources Cats, de Brune and van not at all clear, and is therefore an inadequate basis for such a far-
Beverwyck. However, Cats, op. cit. (note 9), "Moeder," pp. 7-8, deals reaching thesis. The fragment from van Beverwyck (p. 582) cited by
wi[h the relationship between frequency of copulation on the one de Jongh is not about the relationship between drunkenness and the
hand, and the rapid aging and undermining of the body on the other fertility of the seed (which, incidentally, is irrelevant here) but about
hand ("Nimius coitus est destructio corporis, et abbreviatio vitae"). the detrimental effects intoxication has on the unborn child during
Johan de Brune, Emblemata ofzinne-werck, Amsterdam I624, p. 12, is coition: it predestines the child to become a drunkard.
concerned rather with the relationship between the frequency of copu-

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 158 JAN BAPTIST BEDAUX

erally held only until ca. 1450. Afterwards a develop- may well ask where the accessory actually came from,
ment began which would eventually undermine this and how this might affect our analysis of the way in
point of view in favor of the principle of pleasure as a which such portraits originated in the studio.
legitimate end in itself, albeit on certain conditions.'3 The motif under discussion originally developed from
Even somebody like Wittewrongel held the opinion that a group of late sixteenth-century family portraits of an
with the exception of the menstrual period and Lent, existing iconographic type, namely that of a family
during which sexual abstinence was called for, it was gathered round a laid table. During the 1590s this type
right that man and wife "entertained one another and gradually became entwined with motifs taken from
delighted in each other's company" (malkanderen ver- Psalms i and 128, which teach that a God-fearing life
maecken en verblijden). I4 As long as sexual intercourse breeds happiness, prosperity, and progeny. In these
was directed towards the gratification of pleasure, there psalms the God-fearing husband is likened to a tree
was morally speaking nothing the matter. The marital planted by a stream, which bears fruit each season
bed only became tainted if copulation served to fan the without fail and whose leaves shall never wither, the
fires of passion. children to olive plants, and the wife to a fruitful vine. I I
It should thus be clear that, with respect to de Jongh's Such an intertwining of motifs occurs for the first time
conclusion that in some instances "the bunch of grapes in a family portrait dated 1583, probably from the
functions as an image both of the 'virginal' marriage and southern Netherlands, which in all likelihood originated
of its offspring, a seeming paradox that nonetheless fol- in Reformed circles (fig. I2). The anonymous artist who
lows perfectly logically from the 17th-century was commisioned to do this portrait found himself faced
conjunction of chastity and fertility," we are dealing nei-problem of how to combine the scene of a family
with the
ther with a paradox nor with logic. Cats's bunch of gathered round a laid table-a scene that is usually
grapes cannot be transformed into a symbol of fertility,
set indoors-with motifs that only occur outdoors. He
and nor did Cats himself transform the bunch of grapes
solved it by removing the table from the house and plac-
as an age-old biblical image of fertility-which de Jongh
ing it on the adjoining terrace. This trouvaille enabled
also mentions as such-into a symbol of chastity. Cats's him to integrate the tree growing by the stream into a
point of departure was that grapes tend to stain when- landscape, and to place the vine with his bunches of
ever they are touched, and should therefore be grasped grapes, which surround the woman's head like a halo,
by the stem. against the facade of the house. He depicted the children
with olive plants between their folded hands, and in-
THE BUNCH OF GRAPES AS A SYMBOL OF FERTILI- scribed the strapwork cartouches on either side of the
TY The seemingly inevitable conclusion is that we are Hebrew tetragram with the lines from the psalms
confronted with an instance of pictorial homonymy. We containing these metaphors of husband and wife. At
no longer have any reason to assume that the group of bottom center are the opening lines of Psalm I28: "Bles-
portraits dealt with here relates either directly or indi- sed is every one that feareth the Lord; that walketh in his
rectly to Cats's emblems. But if these emblems are use- ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands: happy
less to the interpretation and analysis of the origins of the shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee." The tenor
bunch of grapes as an accessory in these portraits, we of these lines is visualized both by the threatening hand

13 For this aspect see John T. Noonan, Jr., Contraception et ma- forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and what-
riage: tivolution ou contradiction dans la pensee chrdtienne, Paris i969, soever he doeth shall prosper."
pp. 390-421; Donald Haks, Huwelijk en gezin in Holland in de I7de en Psalm 128 reads: "Blessed is every one that feareth the Lord; that
i8de eeuw, Assen I982, pp. 9-12, p. 30, pp. 70ff. walketh in his ways. For thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands:
14 Groenendijk, op. cit. (note i I). happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee. Thy wife shall be as
15 The relevant lines from Psalm I read as follows. "Blessed is the a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants
man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the round about thy table. Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that
way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delightfeareth
is the Lord. The Lord shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt
in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.see the good ofJerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy
And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth
children's children, and peace upon Israel."

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Fruit symbolism in Netherlandish portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 159

i ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Seeik Musea _

jj _2 Anonymous, Southern Netherlandish (?),

....... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Portrait
......._.........................................e de... M u s of afamily, dated 1583. Bruges,

of God with a whip and a rod in the top lefthand corner the floor to the woman's right and the olive plants next to
of the picture, and by the richly laden table. ' 6 the children are equally peculiar.
Around i 6oo we find a number of prints depicting the In the print by Robert de Baudous, whose treatment
same biblical passages. The earliest in the series is by of the theme is indebted to de Gheyn, the space is ren-
Jacob de Gheyn, datable ca. i6oo (fig. 13). ' This print dered much more consistently, for the open wall has
has fewer motifs than the painting, and apart from the been closed (fig. I4). 8 However, for the sake of the
food on the table it only depicts the metaphors of the metaphors occurring in the psalm, one of the walls con-
husband as the fruit-bearing tree, the wife as the vine, tains an open arch. Finally, in the print by Claes Jansz.
and the children as olive plants. De Gheyn has placed his Visscher, an ordinary doorway is substituted for this
family indoors, which weakens his realism, for he had to unrealistic element (fig. i5).'9 Here the door is ajar,
remove part of the wall on the left so as not to deprive us enabling the observer to catch a glimpse of both the tree
of the view of the tree by the river. The vine rising from and the vine. Visscher also omitted the unreal olive

i6 The aged woman inside the house watching the scene outdoors (Your wife shall be fruitful / Like a sweet well-laden vine, / And
through a window is possibly a visualization of verse 6 of Psalm I28. your children like pure olive plants / Round about your table
For the painting see Dirk de Vos, Stedelike Musea Brugge: catalogus untainted and clear.)
schilderien isde en i6de eeuw, Bruges I979, pp. 71-72. The texts in the
picture read as follows. Bottom center:
Top left: Salych Sijnse die den Heere vreesen Onghemete[n]
Ghelijck Eenen Boom ontrent die water beken Ende die wandelen in syn weeghen tot allen tijen
Ten bequamen tijde, zijne goede vruchten gheeft Den Aerbeyt uwer Handen die Sult ghy Eeten
Alzo sal oock wesen den man Gyeleken Salich zydy Ende u zal Seer wel gheschijnen.
De welcke In de vreese des heeren leeft.
PSALM I (Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord without measure / And
those who will always walk in his ways. / The labor of your hands
(Like a tree by the rivers of water / That brings forth his eat,
you shall right
/ Blessed you are, and you shall prosper.)
fruits in his season, / Thus shall be the man / Who lives in the fear
of God.) 17 The first text below the print is a metrical Latin translation of
Psalm 128, derived from Paraphrasis Psalmorum Davidis poetica (I566)
Top right: by George Buchanan (I506-1582). The second text is a rhymed ver-
Dijne huijsvrauwe die sal wesen vruchtbaer sion in Dutch of Psalm I28.
Als Eenen welgheladen wynstok Idoone i8 The first text in the print repeats the Latin text in the print by de
Ende u kijnderen Als planten van Oliven Claer Gheyn (see note I7). The second consists of a rhymed version in
rontome uw taefelen Reijn ende schoone. Dutch of a combination of Psalms I and I 28.
Psal cxxviii I9 The first text in this print is a rhymed version in Dutch of Psalm
128 (different from the one in the print by de Gheyn). The second is a
rhymed version in French of Psalm I28.

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I 60 JAN BAPTIST BEDAUX

r ldEF Q _~~~~E- - i, W - - X f W X -

I3 Jano Clesz Visheyn, Saying grae, dAmterdam I4 Roetd

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Fruit symbolism in Netherlandish portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries I6I

fF _'

i6 Anonymous, Portrait ofafamily, dated I 627. Amsterdam, Rij

the Rijksmuseum Het Catharijneconvent, Utrecht)

plants shooting up from His

the son stands
floor.
in front of
However,
him, holding a pear by
one
its stem.
eleme
that is most remarkable from
The mother isthe
at the other
pointend of the
oftable,view
and beside of rea
is the vine that has crept into the room through the her is her daughter carrying a basket of fruit on her left
upper windows. This curious motif also occurs in a arm. With her right hand the daughter grasps a bunch of
family portrait from the northern Netherlands, dated grapes, which the father significantly holds up to the
I627 (fig. I6), where the vine enters the room through an beholder. Now, what de Jongh failed to observe when he
open window and continues along the wall over the discussed this painting, is that the bunch of grapes is
heads of the sitters. Here the painter has dropped the attached to a vine that originates from the right hand of
metaphor of the tree, and has replaced the olive plants bythe mother, and winds itself across the table, behind the
a branch of cherries, held by the child sitting on its daughter, towards the father's hand. It can therefore be
mother's lap. argued that the vine serves, as it were, as a natural exten-
To this iconographic series we may add a family por- sion of the wife, who is after all referred to in the psalm as
trait by J.A. Rotius, a painter whose inventiveness is the fruitful vine. By means of some vine-leaves, clearly
well illustrated by his use of accessories in his portraits visible through the windows, Rotius creates the impres-
(fig. I7). Rotius's picture is crucial to the development of sion that the vine held by the wife is connected with the
our theme. This portrait, presumably painted about one outside.
I645, shows a married couple with their two living chil- What has also been omitted from this painting is the
dren, rigidly symmetrical against the wall of a realistic metaphor of the husband as the fruit-bearing tree. Ro-
room.20 The wall is divided in half by a pier separating tius lets the husband share in the metaphor of the vine,
two windows. In front of this pier, which bears the por-which was originally reserved for the wife. This begins
trait of a deceased child, is a table with an assortment of to make sense if we bear in mind that the "fruit,") al-
fruit, on the table-top as well as on the platter.2' The though borne by the woman and especially associated
father, as head of the family, sits on the right of the table. with her, after all involves both husband and wife. To-

2o For the attribution and dating of this picture see B.J.A.
Renckens, "De Hoornse portretschilderJan Albertsz. Rotius," Neder-
lands Kunsthistorischjaarboek 2 (1948-49), pp. I8I-82 and cat. nr. 9.
2i From a study of depictions of deceased children it appears that in
family portraits they could be shown as living children (occasionally
nude, or practically nude), as cherubim, or, as frequently occurred
with deceased ancestors and parents, by means of a picture within a
picture. I am currently preparing an article on dead children in
Netherlandish painting of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

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 I62 JAN BAPTIST BEDAUX

17 Jan Albertsz. Rotius, Portrait

gether with his wife, the husband now advertises the And as a result of this development, the specifically bib-
fertility of the family by means of the bunch of grapes.lical meaning of fertility, which focused on the wife and
The following stage in the development of the theme connoted piety and fear of God, shifted towards fertility
is reached when the vine is pruned away to the stem of in a more general sense.
the bunch. Now that the vine is discarded, leaving us It is by no means my intention to suggest that the
with the bunch of grapes, it is the wife who-entirely in pictorial evolution of the biblical metaphor of the family
keeping with the Psalm-evolves into the vine, and con- reconstructed here, gives a chronologically precise idea
sequently becomes part of the metaphor (fig. i8). of an actual development on all points. Unquestionably,
In my opinion, this stage was strongly influenced by a there must have been artists who skipped certain stages
selective pressure on realism, as with the evolution of the in this process. Something else that should be taken into
pictorial image generally. This pressure was particularly account is that the development may have been influ-
strong in portraiture. Unlike prints with a general didac- enced by other pictorial traditions, such as Mariological
tic purport, where abstract children overgrown with iconography. There seems little doubt, for example, that
olive plants are still imaginable, individual portraits ge- the dish of fruit in The Holy Family by Joos van Cleve
nerally contain metaphors that are supposed to be less (fig. 20) refers to Mary's fertility-particularly if the
obtrusive. While the biblical metaphor retained its fruit is seen in conjunction with the written text held by
meaning and remained timeless, it seems that its visuali- Joseph, which shows the very fragment from the Ave
zation was increasingly judged on the basis of the criteriaMaria that speaks of Christ as the fruit of Mary's womb.
of realism and visual consistency. The price to be paid As regards the individual portrait, it is clear at an early
was a certain erosion of the biblical metaphor, as well date that existing pictorial traditions had a pruning ef-
as a loss of emphasis. The conspicuous vine, an impor- fect on the depiction of the grape metaphor. This is
tant semantic selector in an interpretation analogous to exemplified by the early sixteenth-century portrait of
Psalm 128, vanished. So it is not surprising that once the Agniete van den Rijne by Joos van Cleve (fig. 2I). This
image of the bunch of grapes without its vine established painting was executed in accordance with an existing
itself, the grapes became easily interchangeable with compositional formula, with the sitter being portrayed
whatever fruit happened to present itself (fig. I9). It also half-length, holding an object referring to a specific vir-
explains why the bunch of grapes ended up in its most tue, or the sitter's name or profession (fig. 22). Agniete,
appropriate place, namely the fruit platter (figs. 2, 3, 4). for instance, holds a small bunch of grapes with an ele-

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Fruit symbolism in Netherlandish portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries I63

*8 Piea^te Pbietersz^ .,. Lar_4os. an ifml. Beln St.aadih Muen Gem.deplerie

gant hand. The vine is transferred to the windowsill

which forms part of the illusionistic picture frame.
What is clear in all these cases is that the image, too,
has laws of its own. The gradual transformation of the
image, occasioned by a selective pressure on realism,
C U _~~~~~~~~~~~0 I I1 .
eventually enables the image to release itself from its
verbal origin, and to develop in an unforeseen direction.

GENERAL AND SPECIFIC SYMBOLISM The broader

interpretation of the bunch of grapes as a symbol of
fertility in general has an important advantage over the
specific reading based on Cats's emblems, for it removes
a number of awkward problems inherent in the specific
interpretation. I have already alluded to the difficulty
that arises when the grapes are held otherwise than ac-
cording to Catsian etiquette. De Jongh was also faced
with the dilemma of how we should interpret bunches of
19 Attributed to Jacob Gerritsz. Cuyp, Portrait ofa family. Location
grapes dated prior to i6i8, in other words those preda- unknown
ting Cats's Maechden-plicht. The only way he could
solve this problem was by creating an iconographic metaphors. So in the light of this tradition the grapes
watershed, as it were, between northern and southern held by the child in a family portrait attributed to Ru-
Netherlandish painting, for from his inventory it turned bens (fig. 23) presumably refer, de Jongh writes, to "the
out that all portraits from the north in which the sitters metaphor of Mary as the vine and Christ as its fruit, and
hold bunches of grapes dated from after i6i8, whereas possibly to Christ's role as Savior as well." And in the
all prior examples were painted in the south. The ob- case of van Cleve's portrait of Agniete van den Rijne, he
vious next step was to find a typically Catholic icono-is inclined "to see Agniete performing a kind of 'imitatio
Mariae'."
graphy that suited the latter group. What naturally sug-
gested itself was the Christo-Mariological tradition, in One might well ask whether the drawing of an icono-
which the vine and the bunch of grapes are recurrent graphic dividing line between Holland and Flanders

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 I64 JAN BAPTIST BEDAUX

~~~~ F N j *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~j
z~~ 4

. . ..,.i.,,.-;...:,.*~~~~~~~~. . ...... ^

Metrpoitn usu
20 Joos van Cleve, The Holy Family. New York, 2I Joos van Cleve
Metropolitan Museum Enschede, Rijksmuseum Twenthe

is altogether justified in this context. Is this view not 22 Rogier van der Weyden, Francesco d'Este. New York,
Metropolitan Museum
invalidated as soon as it is confronted with, for instance,
Pieter Pietersz.'s portrait of the renowned Amsterdam
publisher Laurens Jacobsz. and his family, a portrait
which unmistakably originated in the northern Nether-
lands (fig. i8)?22
Here, as early as I 598, the woman is holding a bunch
of grapes in her left hand entirely in Catsian fashion, but
no fewer than twenty years before Cats's emblems ap-
peared. I am inclined to assume that the painter was still
using his grapes as an explicit reference to the psalmist.
The same applies to the trees in the garden visible
'.4

through the open window of the imaginary "renais-

sance" room, which may still refer to the God-fearing
father, who is here depicted educating his two eldest
sonns
As to the interpretations of the Rubens and the Joos
van Cleve, I see no clear reason why they should be
attuned to Christo-Mariological iconography. After all,
we are dealing here with secular portraits, and not with

22 For the identification of the figures in this portrait see R.E.O.

Ekkart, "Een portret van Laurens Jacobsz. en zijn gezin," De Boeken-
wereld I (I985-86), nr. 3, pp. I3-I5.

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Fruit symbolism in Netherlandish portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries I65

24 Conrad Faber von Creuznach, Portrait ofjustinian von Holzhausen and Anna Fuirstenberg. Frankfurt,
Staidelsches Kunstinstitut

religious representations-two genres that should by no 23 Peter Paul Rubens, Portrait of a family. Karlsruhe, Staatliche
Kunsthalle
means be confused.
De Jongh is forced to create another iconographic de-
marcation when, towards the end of his article, he dis-
cusses the portrait of Justinian von Holzhausen and
Anna Furstenberg, painted by Conrad Faber von

- ~~~~~~~~~~~r)
Creuznach in I536 (fig. 24). Here, Anna holds a bunch
of grapes which is attached to a sprig of vine in the same
way as in Agniete's portrait.23 Since we are in good
Reformed company with this family, a Mariological in-
terpretation would be fundamentally wrong, as indeed it
would in Agniete's case. De Jongh was therefore left
with one possible interpretation, the only correct one,
namely a reading analogous to Psalm 128.24
It is within the context of the latter painting that he
refers to a poem accompanying a print that is appro-
priate here, and which opens the chapter "Moeder"

23 With respect to this painting, de Jongh notes that the emphasis is

on the vine and the fruit alike. The same however also applies to the
Rotius (fig. I7).
24 It seems not unlikely that the tree behind the man represents the
tree from Psalm i.

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 i66 JAN BAPTIST BEDAUX

(Mother) in Cats's Houwelick (fig. 25). In addition, he

quotes from the poem "Echt-sangh" (Hymen) by Dirck
Pietersz. Pers, describing the wife as a fruitful vine,25
and goes on to conclude that: "Although conclusive
proof (as always) is lacking, we must keep an open
mind for the possibility that this imagery (paraphrasing
Psalms I28:3, or perhaps an emancipated Marian sym-
bol) also played a role of some kind in I7th-century art
besides Cats's dominant emblematic application. This
would seem most likely in the case of family portraits,
especially the ones by Thomas de Keyser [fig. 26] and
Jurriaen Jacobson [fig. 27], where so many 'sweet fruits'
of the fertile vine are depicted. If I am right, this is an
instance of compound symbolism: the bunch of grapes
functions as an image both of the 'virginal' marriage and
of its offspring." Why the symbolism taken from Psalm25 Autumnus. Illustration after Adriaen van de Venne from Jacob
I 28 should apply exclusively to portraits such as the ones Cats, Houwelick, Middelburg I625, "Moeder"
by de Keyser and Jacobson escapes me, unless the deci-
sive factor is the number of children depicted. But then
how many children are needed before we can legiti- raised demonstratively by the eldest daughter and the
mately speak of "compound symbolism"? richly laden platter of fruit on the table must also have
What is more important, however, is that this so-cal- played a role in the iconography of the composition,
led "compound symbolism," an indirect accretion of the though their precise meaning evades me. It is uncertain
specific interpretation based on Cats, relates to the pro- whether the apple is a sign of fertility (the fruit is held
blem of what Gombrich calls "levels of meaning." In the over the head of the mother), the fruit of the fall of man,
case of the grapes, this relates to the question whether there to be overcome, or a concatenation of both, in
different meanings are simultaneously applicable to keeping with the well-known 17th-century principle of
them, as in the two paintings mentioned above. De ambiguity. If we see the apple in combination with the
Jongh is explicit about this when interpreting the family
grapes and the Bible, we cannot but interpret the whole
portrait by Thomas de Keyser (fig. 26). In his view, the as emblematic of fall and redemption. The basket of
daughter behind the table, although still in happy own- fruit on the table, to the right of the mother, flows over,
ership of her first virginity, is already being urged by mainly with grapes, recalling an image of fertility as old
means of the bunch of grapes to work on her second as the Bible." Here the apple and the grapes are inter-
virginity. De Jongh goes on to say that: "The apple preted on various levels. This multiple interpretation is

25 Cats, op. cit. (note 9), "Moeder," p. i. Cats's original intention
was to treat in his Houwelick only those four stages of marriage that
corresponded to the four seasons, with motherhood being compared to
the mature autumn. The poem accompanying the print at the begin-
ning of "Moeder," which shows a woman whose head is wreathed with
vine-leaves and who holds a large basket of grapes, reads as follows.
De wijngaert dient gestut, de druyf begint te swellen.
De boomen staen bevrucht, de jonge tacken hellen;
Koom plant nu groene jeught, jnt jonge lieden, jnt,
Daer naeckt een rijpen tijdt wannermen vruchten vint.
Siet hier een swanger lijf genegen om te baren,
Siet hier een lieve vrucht, die na de moeder dorst;
Nu koomt, 6 voester, koomt; en geeft het kint de borst.
(The vine in the vineyard needs support, the grape begins to
swell. / The trees are bearing fruit, young branches are weighted
down; / Now come and plant green youth, [and] graft young
people, graft, / A mature period is approaching fast, when fruits
are to be found. / Behold this pregnant body preparing to give
birth, / Behold this tender fruit, craving for its mother; / Now
come, 0 nurse, do come; and give the child the breast.)
For the original intent of Houwelick see Domien ten Berge, De
hooggeleerde en zoetvloeiende dichter_Jacob Cats, The Hague 1979, pp.
77ff. For Pers's poem see Dirck Pietersz. Pers, Bellerophon, of lust tot
wiisheit, Amsterdam i6416, pp. 66-67.

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Fruit symbolism in Netherlandish portraiture of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries I67

..... t . E :~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. ... .....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~. . . . .
i~~~~~~~~~~~ WU

....:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~......

26 Thomas de Keyser, Portrait of a family. Formerly Berlin, Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum

(destroyed in May 1945)

bolstered by means of the rhetorical concept of ambigui-

tas.26 Even if we assume that de Keyser, in painting such
portraits, would have used the rules of rhetoric as a
guiding principle- something I refuse to believe-it is
hardly conceivable that he would have chosen to pursue
this primarily negative quality of ambiguitas. As I see it,
the ambiguity that is attributed to seventeenth-century
Dutch painting is more likely to be a product of a recep-
tion guided by typically iconological premises, creating
problems that must have been alien to seventeenth-cen-
tury man.
This sort of interpretation of the average portrait,
which tackles each representation as a puzzle in its own
27 Jurriaen Jacobson, Michiel de Ruyter and his family, signed and
right, has created an exaggerated notion of the painter's
dated I662. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum

26 For this notion the author refers in his note 34 to Lee A. Son- commentary on Ovid's Metamorphoses is concerned. If various mean-
nino, A handbook to sixteenth-century rhetoric, London I968, pp. 27- ings are attributed to a certain story, they do not necessarily have to be
28. The reference in the same note to Hessel Miedema, op. cit. (note simultaneously valid. It is the context of the painting that determines
I), vol. 2, pp. 306-07 does not concern ambiguitas. What Miedema which of these meanings eventually applies; see E.H. Gombrich,
does refer to is a method of multiple interpretation that was based on
"Aims and limits of iconology," in Symbolic images: studies in the art of
the multiple scriptural exegesis, and which was taken over for examplethe Renaissance, London 1972, pp. 7-9. I stated earlier that those
by Karel van Mander in his Uutleggingh op den Metamorphosis Pub. paintings that derive directly from emblem literature are, numerically
Ovidij Nasonis, which occasionally deals with a "gheschiedighe" (his- speaking, an all but negligible category. But suppose that paintings did
torical), a "natuerlijcke" (natural), and a "leerlijcke" or "sin-ghe- derive from this specific book of emblems by Cats (see for example my
vende" (didactic) explanation of the same image. interpretation of J.G. Cuyp's Three children in a landscape in "Disci-
Jacob Cats, too, elaborated this idea in his collection of emblems pline for innocence: metaphors for education in Dutch seventeenth-
Sienus Akibiadis sive Proteus, in which each print was explained in century painting," in Images of the world: Dutch genre painting in its
three different ways, these being an amorous, a social, and a religious historical context, in press), then it would still hold true that the context
explanation. As I see it, Gombrich is still right as far as van Mander's determines which of the three explanations applies.

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i68

invention of content, since complex layers of meaning the sort of fruit, nor how or where it should be depicted.
also presuppose a complex train of thought on the part ofIt is quite possible that even this very general meaning
the painter or his client. The same applies also to the was still subject to erosion, and that the repertory of
intricate transformation of Cats's emblem as sketched fruits was sometimes exclusively used to liven up or vary
by de Jongh. It does not however apply to the simple a group portrait, if necessary.
step from fruit to fertility. If we look at the fruit in these portraits in this light, it
Any sort of fruit, regardless of how or by whom it was
not only increases our understanding of the way this
held, or whether it was simply lying on a platter, must accessory was produced, but also of the way in which it
nearly always have referred to this highly general con- must have been received. Besides, it greatly simplifies
cept of fertility.27 It should be emphasized that when matters for contemporary iconologists, since the ap-
dealing with this concept we must not merely think of proach proposed here, having a much more general and
the quantity of the offspring, but of its quality as well. simultaneously more intelligible purport, removes all
Or, in the words of Thomas Aquinas, "Offspring does problems created by the specific interpretation rooted in
not only imply begetting children, but also raising a specific emblem.
them"-a view that was still valid in the sixteenth and Now that our idea of the meaning and origins of this
seventeenth centuries.28 Begetting children inevitably accessory is no longer obscured by the wrongly assumed
implied educating them. Hence breeding and education relationship with Cats's emblem, it seems far more ob-
are concepts inherent in each other, and references to vious-also with respect to seventeenth-century man-
breeding or education were usually made in terms of that parents in a family portrait should wish to commu-
metaphors derived from agriculture. In these meta- nicate their pride in their offspring rather than present a
phors, the seed from which the ripe fruits eventually mutilated allusion to their low frequency of copulation.
originate, is synonymous with the male seed that pro-
duces fine children, while the cares with which the seed,
the fragile plant, and the fruit must be surrounded are INSTITUTE FOR ART HISTORY

symbolic of education.29 In the case of the average por- FREE UNIVERSITY

trait, therefore, painters did not need to trouble about AMSTERDAM

Cornelia,
27 Kettering (op. cit. [note I], pp. 73-74) rightly relates thethe mother
fruit in of the Gracchi. Cornelia detained the woman
pastoral portraits to the fertility of the family. until her twelve children came home from school, and retorted, point-
28 The "Summa Theologica" of St Thomas Aquinas, ing at her offspring:
literally trans- "Behold, these are all my tapestries and valua-
bles."
lated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province, pt. 3, This story, taken from Valerius Maximus, was the incentive for
Supplemen-
a familyop.
tum, London 1Q22, p. I47 (49, art. 2). Cf. also Noonan, portrait
cit. by Jan van Bylert, see G.J. Hoogewerff, "Jan van
(note
13), pp. 358-59, 424-25, 607-o8; Groenendijk, op. cit. (note ii), p. Bylert, schilder van Utrecht (1598-I671)," Oud Holland 8o (I965), p.
I39ff; Haks, op. cit. (note 13), p. I57ff. 23, fig. 27.
It was not without reason that Ripa in his image of "Fecondita" or 29 For these metaphors see Jan Baptist Bedaux, "Beelden van 'leer-
"vruchtbaerheyt" (fertility) speaks of "veele goede, deughdsaeme, en sucht' en tucht: opvoedingsmetaforen in de schilderkunst van de ze-
ventiende eeuw," Nederlands Kunsthistorisch ]aarboek 33 (I983), pp.
treflycke kinderen" ("many fine, virtuous, and excellent children");
49-74; Bedaux, op. cit. (note 26); Johan van Beverwyck, op. cit. (note
see Cesare Ripa, Iconologia of uijtbeeldingen des verstants, ed. D.P.
Pers, Amsterdam I644, pp. 579-8I. In this context he tells the story of 12), pp. 569-93.
a wealthy woman who flaunted her riches in the house of the fertile

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