#amablog

Nkisi figurine from Congo Late 19 century, wood, various materials, mirror; ~ 30cm

Hendrik Leys - A merry company in a 17th-century Dutch interior (1847)

Oil on mahogany panel, 75 x 90 cm Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

Detail with a mirror:

Speaking of Prudences, I recently found a particularly interesting one. In fact, I first came across it right here on Tumblr - in a post by @beautiful-belgium, about the altar of St James the Lesser, in the church of the same name in Liège, Belgium. The altar - in fact, there are two of them, the second dedicated to St. Andrew - have a curious history. They were once part of a massive jubé (known in English as a rood screen, the partition wall that once divided the nave and choir in Catholic churches across Europe). Constructed around 1600s, the wall was later demolished but the two altars survived and are now tucked at the back of the church, against the organ wall:

The altars are nearly 7.5 meters tall, with the figures of the saints and virtues carved almost life-size. Made of white alabaster and set against black marble, they once formed part of what visitors praised as 'one of the most beautiful doxals [Flemish term for jubé] in the Low Countries':

(Image from BALaT (Belgian Art Links and Tools): CC BY 4.0 KIK-IRPA, Brussels (Belgium), # KN007503; I only added the white circle around Prudence). Prudence is shown patting her beloved Serpent but missing her second attribute - the mirror. Yet everything - her pose, her gaze, the tilt of her hand - suggests there was once a mirror there (of course):

It must have been lost somewhere along the way - during one of the many reconstructions, or perhaps deliberately 'defaced' (demirrored Prudences are not exactly a rare fate).