Artist Painting a Nude Woman: Allegory of Visual Perception

Jan Pietersz Saenredam after Hendrik Goltzius

National Gallery of Art

This is a print of an allegorical scene featuring various symbols of arts and sciences. Closest to us, there is a winged cherub holding a rectangular mirror up to a kneeling, semi-nude woman on the right who is draped in fabric. The woman seems to look down at her reflection in the mirror. Behind the cherub, an old man appears to paint the woman, looking towards her as he holds his brush up to the canvas. Three more men are partially visible behind him, all seeming to use tools related to measurement. More tools and objects are scattered on the ground. There is a cat sitting near the bottom-left corner, and a bird flying in the sky near the upper-right corner. In the sky above is a radiant sun, casting light over the background of mountains and a calm sea with ships.