Portret van een meisje, leunend op een zuil 1850 - 1900

This is a portrait of a girl leaning on a column by Albert Alfred Warnery. The girl is leaning on a column, a classical symbol used to convey stability, strength, and virtue. In ancient Greece and Rome, columns were central to architectural achievements but, also, they were used as metaphorical supports for individuals considered pillars of society. Think of the many Renaissance portraits in which noblemen and women are posed next to or leaning on columns, signaling their high status. The gesture of leaning, however, softens the column’s rigid symbolism. It introduces an element of casualness that humanizes the sitter. It appears in varied times and places in history, as it is a motif we see repeated in the archaeological record of ancient Rome and Greece, for example. The column, thus, becomes a signifier of cultural memory, a subconscious link to the past, ever-evolving in meaning, yet persistently present.