Plate 1: Pedro González (Petrus Gonsalvus) and His Wife, Catherine

Joris Hoefnagel

National Gallery of Art

Set within a drawn oval frame, two people are shown from the waist up against a parchment-white background in this horizontal watercolor portrait. To the left, the man’s face is entirely covered with golden brown hair, leaving space for only the eyes, the protruding nose, and mouth. He looks at us, wearing a narrow white collar over a lapis-blue robe with black sleeves. To our right, a woman rests one hand on his near shoulder. Her body is angled toward him, to the left, and she looks off in that direction. She has a round face, pale skin, rosy cheeks, and dark pink lips. She wears a black cap with a wide, flat strip of cloth draped from front to back. Her black dress has a white ruff collar, puffed sleeves, a cinched waist, and a full skirt. The pair stand behind what appears to be a grassy ledge with a twig growing out of a rise to the left. The background behind them and beyond the gold line border is white. Latin text is handwritten above and below the gold oval frame in two colors of ink. Above and in purple, text reads, “Omni miraculo quod fit per Hominem maius miraculum est Homo visibilium omnium maximus est Mundus, invisibilium DEVS sed mundum esse cospicimus, Deum esse Credimus…” Below and in yellow ink, text reads, ““HOMO natus de MVLIERE, brevi viventis Tempore Repletus multis miseriis. Job 14.”