Allegory of Grammar

In 1644 a French edition appeared of Cesare Ripa's Iconologia, the Italian handbook that told artists how to personify abstract ideas. A few years later the painter probably used it when he painted the Seven Liberal Arts for the Paris house of Gédéon Tallemant. Ripa's figures stand full length, while La Hyre's are cut to half length and brought close. Grammar waters two pots of flowers from a blue and white jug, because young minds, like young plants, need tending. The scroll in her other hand reads, in Latin, a literate and articulate voice pronounced in the proper manner. Behind her are a fluted column and a carved urn. The seven canvases stayed together until 1760. This one shows changes made to that scroll and the folds of the drapery as he worked, which sets it apart from a later version now in Baltimore.