Patientia (Patience), 1560

About the Work

Just a few years after Bruegel’s Patience, the publisher Hieronymus Cock had a depiction of the same theme by Frans Floris printed. Whereas Bruegel had set his main character in a multifigural composition, Floris concentrated his attention on the female personification, seen here holding a crucifix and gazing humbly downwards. The dragon at her feet and the serpents at her sides serve as symbols of the evil to be combated.