A Christian Allegory of the Salvation of a Christian Soul

Image credit: The Bowes Museum

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The Christian soul, represented as a naked man, is crowned with a laurel wreath by a winged Victory. A skeleton and a dragon appear defeated at his feet, as symbols of Death and the Devil claiming a fallen soul. They are surrounded by female personifications of the three theological virtues: Faith, holding a cross, Charity with a flaming heart, and Hope, with the Scriptures and an anchor. The use of classical sources within the moral didacticism of the allegory would have appealed to the humanist audience for whom artists such as Maerten van Heemskerck and Frans Floris worked.

The Bowes Museum

Barnard Castle

Title

A Christian Allegory of the Salvation of a Christian Soul

Date

late 16th C

Medium

oil on panel

Measurements

H 90 x W 102.5 cm

Accession number

B.M.953

Acquisition method

bequeathed by the Founders, 1885

Work type

Painting

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The Bowes Museum

Barnard Castle, County Durham DL12 8NP England

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