Title page of Iconologia of uytbeeldinghen des verstants

Cesare Ripa was a 16th-century Italian aesthetician and author of the Iconologia, an influential emblem book. The picture shows the title page of a Dutch translation which was published in 1644 in Amsterdam.

The notion that painting and literature are closely related - a concept already well established in the Renaissance - played an instrumental role in the arts. This idea is neatly demonstrated in the present title page, where Painting and Poetry in person flank a cartouche containing and extensive title, which is placed beneath the higher spheres where the art-loving gods Minerva, Apollo, and Mercury are seated.