Laurent de La Hyre, 'Allegory of Grammar', 1650

This painting is one of a series depicting the Seven Liberal Arts, which represent disciplines associated with learning and language – grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, music, geometry and astronomy – as women. Grammar is shown as a woman watering plants, conveying the idea that young minds need encouragement to develop and grow. The Latin inscription on the scroll can be translated as ‘A meaningful and literate word spoken in the correct manner’.

La Hyre was probably inspired by Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia, an illustrated dictionary in which ideas were represented through images of people. The French edition was published in 1644, about five years before La Hyre began his series. But whereas Ripa’s figures are full length, La Hyre chose to paint his women half length.

The series was painted for the Paris residence of Gédéon Tallemant (1613–1668), a member of Louis XIV’s government. According to the artist’s son, Philippe de La Hyre, they were displayed together in one room. The commission came about because Tallemant had been impressed with La Hyre’s prestigious work for the nearby Capuchin Church.

The seven paintings remained in their original location until 1760, after which the series was sold. Allegory of Arithmetic (Fondation Hannema-de Stuers, Heino) and this painting were sold in Paris in 1809. Copies of the seven paintings were probably made while the original versions were in the artist’s studio: another version of Grammar is in Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. La Hyre typically painted his figures in a classical style: they appear solid and sculptural, the drapery arranged in crisp, overlapping folds. Further references to ancient Greece and the classical age can be seen in the fluted column and ornate urn in the background.

La Hyre made alterations to his composition while he was painting, changing the position of the scroll and shape of the woman’s drapery on one arm, removing a box-shaped object at the bottom, and painting the foliage and urn on top of the sky. There are no such changes in the Baltimore version, suggesting that the composition had been finalised by the time it was painted.