Wisdom (Sapience)

Engraving, part of a series of twelve oval prints with allegorical representations of Minerva, Wisdom, the sciences and liberal arts. Most of them are represented by female figures (the exception being Physics, represented by Apollo), surrounded by pastoral landscapes, some of them with small towns with medieval buildings in the background. In the representations of liberal arts, Delaune depicts more detailed landscapes with fragments of classical architecture. This print contains a representation of Wisdom, walking towards the left, her head in profile view, and her eyes looking up to the sky, where the name of Jehova is inscribed in Hebrew. She holds a book on one hand and, with the other, she points to a line in the text. At her feet, on the left, another woman emerges from the ground; nude, she holds one of her breasts in her right hand, and touches her forehead with the other, with a half-amused, half-dubious manner. Her eyes are covered and her breasts are pouring out milk. The contrast caused by these two women might also represent the opposition between the celestial woman and the terrestrial woman, the wisdom in civilization and the savageness in nature. Several elements, including the dress and shoes, the position of the body, and the gestures, also play a role in the construction of the opposition between the two.