Ole Worm 1626

This is Simon de Pas's engraving of Ole Worm, a piece imbued with symbols of knowledge and time, made in 1626. Worm is encircled by an inscription declaring him a professor of medicine, but notice the symbolic weight of his attire and the Latin verses accompanying his portrait. The verses themselves become symbols, echoing classical traditions and suggesting Worm as a modern sage unveiling ancient wisdom. The act of portraiture, too, carries its own symbolic weight. Consider, for instance, the evolution of portraiture from Roman funerary masks to Renaissance commemorations of great thinkers. Each age reshapes the symbol, imbuing it with new layers of meaning while still tethered to the primal desire to preserve and remember. This image is a kind of a cultural echo, where collective memory engages with the psyche to give us the impression of a man who is both an individual and an embodiment of intellectual history.