Hand Drawing a Fortuna with a Quill

Emblems, or visual insignias of allegorical concepts, became a favored mode of transmitting complex ideas in the European late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Such devices could be found on shields, in coats of arms, on noble household items, and more; and they were often collected into poetic miscellanies known as emblem books. Among the most well known of the customary images was that of Fortuna, or Fate, often depicted as a young woman balancing upon a sphere. It is just such an emblem that Poudreau’s disembodied hand is seen to draw. The clever and self-reflexive figure of the drawing hand suggests that we ourselves create our systems of belief, such as those that inscribe value to “Fate.” The precariousness of the unknown, perhaps, can be counterbalanced by the arts and human ingenuity.