Fiducia, a seated woman holds a book and banner while turning her head away from a bare-breasted woman, who lies at her feet before an assemblage of masks on the ground, from the series 'Virtues conquering vices' after Maerten de Vos 1579

This engraving, by Johann Sadeler I after Maerten de Vos, presents 'Fiducia,' or Fidelity, as a triumphant virtue. She holds a banner displaying clasped hands, a symbol of trust, while a vanquished, bare-breasted figure lies at her feet amidst discarded masks. The masks are particularly compelling. Since antiquity, masks have served as potent symbols of deception and hidden intentions. Think of the theatrical masks of ancient Greece, representing comedy and tragedy, or the masked figures in commedia dell'arte, each embodying stock characters and concealed identities. The image resonates with psychological depth. The act of unmasking suggests a stripping away of false pretenses, a return to authenticity. It is a motif that carries a powerful emotional charge, tapping into our primal fears of deceit. These symbols are not static; they evolve. Masks reemerge in surrealist art as fragmented identities, in contemporary protest as tools of anonymity, constantly reshaped by the currents of culture and memory.