Portret van Michel de L'Hospital 1682

This engraving portrays Michel de L'Hospital, and is made by Edme de Boulonois. Observe the mountain depicted within the cartouche, framed ornately at the base of the portrait. Mountains, historically, have been laden with symbolism – places of spiritual retreat, tests of endurance, or divine revelation. In religious contexts, mountains are where figures meet their gods or receive enlightenment. Consider how this symbol resurfaces in other works, such as Caspar David Friedrich’s landscapes, where mountains evoke the sublime power of nature. The recurring motif suggests a deep-seated cultural fascination with the mountain as a site of transformation and higher understanding. This representation of the mountain in de Boulonois' portrait encapsulates themes of aspiration, challenge, and the pursuit of wisdom, engaging viewers on a subconscious level with ideas of overcoming and transcendence. Such symbols don't progress linearly. Instead they resurface, evolve, and take on new meanings as they are filtered through different eras.