Grafbord van Theodora Antoinette Bodle (1729-74) after 15

This is a commemorative panel made for Theodora Antoinette Bodle, likely painted shortly after her death in 1774. Its lozenge shape and dark ground immediately suggest a break from traditional portraiture. The central diamond contains a heraldic shield, meticulously quartered and crowned, flanked by two griffins in red and grey. Below, a decorative cartouche displays the year of her death and age at passing. The painting’s structure emphasizes symmetry and heraldic formality, yet this very rigidity begins to undermine itself. Each symbolic element–the griffins, the crown, the family shield– functions almost like a signifier in a semiotic system. However, the artist plays with these conventions, creating slight distortions. The griffins mirror each other but aren’t exact, and the cartouche introduces a flourish that disrupts the severe geometry. Ultimately, the dark background and diamond shape force us to contemplate death and memory. The symmetrical arrangement, the heraldic symbols and the formal layout, all hint at an attempt to impose order on the chaos of life and loss. This panel, therefore, isn’t merely a tribute, but a meditation on how we use symbols and forms to construct and manage our understanding of mortality.