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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Bronwen, post: 967528, member: 5833&quot;]If there is any such convention, it is&nbsp; unknown to me, but I&#039;m not anything like a painting expert.&nbsp; The people in the background here do not exactly look like they are going about their daily lives.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I started down, then quickly jumped back out of, the rabbit hole of guild seals, as it was leading me into some D&amp;D/New Agey Wonderland.&nbsp; However, I do think such devices would not have been confined to printers, that masters of various trades &amp; crafts probably had them, as in the excerpt Jivvy posted, as a guarantee of authenticity &amp; quality, the guild member&#039;s proud equivalent of a coat of arms.</p><p><br /></p><p>I think Colonial Williamsburg is just tapping into the same tradition &amp; would not be likely to be helpful with our inquiry.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The Academia di San Luca is the Roman counterpart of London&#039;s Royal Academy, just a lot older.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>The dancers are odd in a couple of ways, one of which is that they are an even number.&nbsp; Three would have given them the look of the Graces, as they have come to be represented, except the discarded clothing &amp; everything else about the scene would have said otherwise.&nbsp; But an even number of flowers in a vase, beads on a necklace or dancers on a canvas leaves a void as the center point of the composition; odd numbers are more pleasing to the eye.&nbsp; The other odd thing here as that you could see the foursome as a group of an inward facing three &amp; an outward facing one.&nbsp; Is she leading the others?&nbsp; Are they swinging her around like a human carnival ride?&nbsp; Did she drink the contents of the jug by herself?</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I asked about the instrument because I think I&#039;m seeing a lyre, not a herdsman&#039;s instrument unless he also happens to be a prince, common enough in myth.&nbsp; Pipes are traditional for such folk.&nbsp; Looking again at the brighter photo, think the man on the left does indeed have a flute.&nbsp; If there has been overpainting, guy on the right may be meant to have a small drum, which would be consistent with the scene.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>I had the thought that it could be Midsummer revels.</p><p><br /></p><p>There was a time when nothing in a painting was without meaning.&nbsp; Is there significance here in the 2 goat herd/musicians appearing to be one young &amp; one older?&nbsp; In the 3 inward facing dancers appearing to have lighter hair than the the one facing outward?&nbsp; I do not know.&nbsp; Suspect the castle is there more to set the scene as on the lands of an estate than to place it anywhere recognizable.&nbsp; They are not in the woodland; it&#039;s a pastoral setting.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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