Justitia und die Wahheit, umgeben von den Personifikationen der vier Elemente 

Editor: This drawing, called "Justitia und die Wahrheit, umgeben von den Personifikationen der vier Elemente", caught my eye here at the Städel Museum. Jacob de Wit rendered this study in chalk, watercolor, ink and coloured pencil. There’s a lightness to it, despite the heavy subject matter… the figures floating in this airy composition. How would you interpret this piece? Curator: It feels as though de Wit wants us to reach up and grasp at some higher order, doesn't it? The figures – Justice, Truth, personifications of the elements – they aren't standing on solid ground, but perched on clouds. It’s a sketch, preparatory to a ceiling fresco, perhaps. Can you imagine looking *up* at this? Editor: From below, that makes a lot of sense. The way Justice is holding the scales above, as if offering it to us… Curator: Exactly! He uses those Baroque compositional tricks, like making figures foreshortened to draw the eye upward. Consider, too, that in Baroque art, allegory was everything! These weren’t just pretty pictures; they were philosophical arguments made visual. It almost reminds me of theatrical set design, which he practiced alongside illusionist ceiling painting. Editor: So, not just decoration, but also persuasive rhetoric, written on the sky, literally. The intention might have been didactic and devotional. Curator: Yes, precisely. And I love how you've noticed the almost ethereal treatment he has given to the chalk, watercolour and ink—the overall mood becomes a key instrument to get his philosophical points across. Wouldn't you say that it speaks of faith as something light, something airy, as you put it? Editor: It does. I came in seeing it as purely representational, but I'm leaving with a much better sense of Jacob de Wit as a true visionary. Curator: Well, my friend, you have indeed hit upon what it takes to be a connoisseur— the ability to shift your perspective. It is just this "allegorical ascension," as you've noticed, that allows you and I to ponder and feel this composition’s emotional charge in this fascinating and thought-provoking sketch.