Unknown Artist, Britain, Portrait Of William Style Of Langley At The Tate Gallery In London England Editorial Photo

Style was a lawyer involved in the Counter-Reformation religious movement and his portrait is full of symbolic elements. The emblem on the floor and its motto proclaim that the human heart cannot be satisfied by worldly matters, but burns for the spiritual life. Style therefore turns his back on the trappings of his earthly life, represented by his family arms set in the window, by his books and writings and by the small violin. Instead, he moves towards the Church, symbolised by a closed garden, beyond which lies a pagan wilderness, including a classical ruin.