{"product_id":"antique-portrait-of-alethea-truth-personified-masonic-allegorical","title":"Antique Portrait of Alethea Truth Personified | Masonic Allegorical","description":"\u003cp\u003eHere we have Truth herself, crowned in laurel and roses, looking out at you with the patience of someone who has sat through a great many oaths.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis portrait depicts a young woman in a simple draped gown, dark hair bound in a wreath of laurel leaves and pink roses, a small tasseled clasp at the neckline. Her name is written along the bottom edge: Alethea, Greek for truth, more literally \"the unhidden,\" a word with real currency in the allegorical vocabulary of fraternal and literary tradition alike. Cornell's own Irving Literary Society took Aletheia as its motto outright. Iowa City ran its own chapter of that same intellectual culture: Zetagathian, Irving, Hesperian, university societies built on classical virtue names and ritual formality, operating in the same decades and the same small city as one of Iowa's oldest Masonic lodges, chartered in 1844.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWe pulled this from the same Iowa City estate as a companion portrait of a bearded king in a jeweled crown, Seal of Solomon pendant at his throat, unmistakably meant to be King Solomon (see our companion listing in the store). \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003ehttps:\/\/www.etsy.com\/listing\/4557140777\/antique-portrait-of-king-solomon-masonic?ref=shop_home_active_2\u0026amp;frs=1\u0026amp;sts=1\u0026amp;logging_key=1ebdd1f77e7a3b13f59349f74ae83bd97f7f5e55%3A4557140777\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMatching board, matching hardware, kept together through at least one household and probably more. Truth and Solomon side by side is not a pairing anyone stumbles into. It is the kind of allegorical logic that only makes sense inside a tradition built on symbol and initiation. We have not turned up a lodge stamp or a society name on the reverse of either board, so we are presenting that context as the strongest explanation on offer, not a certified provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe oil on board artwork measures 12 1\/4” x 9 1\/4”. There is edge wear and chipping to board corners, craquelure and toning consistent with age, hanging wire and screw eye intact on verso. Please see all pics as they are part of the description. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eI ship FedEx to street addresses in the continental USA only (no PO Boxes). Free shipping on the old fraternal piece. \u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eSome truths come with footnotes. This one comes with a wreath instead, and keeps its silence just the same.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Mad Van Antiques","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43472032956493,"sku":null,"price":200.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0116\/3637\/5610\/files\/IMG_0434_da212565-9fce-408f-abdd-3f4d5c476484.jpg?v=1786936179","url":"https:\/\/madvanantiques.com\/products\/antique-portrait-of-alethea-truth-personified-masonic-allegorical","provider":"Mad Van Antiques","version":"1.0","type":"link"}