Three women and death, by La Perrière (1553)

Picture172.jpg

Title

Three women and death, by La Perrière (1553)

Description

Emblem with the following inscription in Latin, from Glasgow University Library: SM689
http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/french/emblem.php?id=FLPb008

Archived in:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170331022217/http://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/french/emblem.php?id=FLPb008

"Nunc licèt instantis timeam conamina Parcae,
Et brevis incertos terminet hora dies.
Quid tum? quo noceat cineri Fortuna sepulto,
Nihil habet, à tumulo livor & omnis abit."
("Now I can rightly fear the attack of the threatening Parcae [Fates], and a swift hour finishes my uncertain days. What then? Fortune has no way to harm ashes once interred, and all envy departs from the grave.").

The emblem represents three naked women and a skeleton without any gender specific traits. The naked women appear from left to right; stepping on a ball, holding a snake and lastly holding a staff on her right hand and the skeleton with her left hand. 

Gender perspective: This emblem represents the tribulations of life, represented here as allegorical female figures, such as envy with a snake, which are alos an allusion to the parcae, is counteracted by genderoless death as a skeleton.

Creator

de la Perrière, Guillaume (c. 1503-c. 1565)

Date

1553

Format

Emblem.
Dimensions: Unknown

Item Relations

This item has no relations.

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