The Virtue of Fides embodied as a portion of the divine feminine following the tradition of symbolism common to western art.
Each virtue in this series, Virtue Cards, has intentionally chosen elements that relate but are not limited to the historical depiction of the virtue. Fides is a Latin word that means faith (faithfulness), trust, loyalty, or fidelity.
About the Virtue of Fides artwork from artist Sally Jo M-Cooper:
So in medieval paintings, there was persistent faith. And she was depicted in those paintings as having a candle lit and with her faithful little white dog.
So this is part of the imagery I was trying to bring back and put into a more modern, approachable context in my virtue cards. So, with this one [Virtue of Fides], the thing I thought about was what's really bad when it's unfaithful? Oh, a call center. And so I use this older image of a lady at a call center and she's got the light on and the dog is there. And that having that image that out there somewhere someone is faithful is good.
Because then when you are dealing with relationships, be they romantic or otherwise, you kind of have this idea, that's real enough that someone painted it, so there must be some of it out there. And you will be less likely to accept unfaithfulness if you know that at least a vestige of that ideal was held by another's mind.
And that's what good images do for society. It was real enough that somebody thought it was important enough. And so I know there's at least some measure of real faithfulness out there, and then you can pursue it.
And we have, we have unfaithfulness depicted in the bottom with this little character that's running out the door and the candle is out and the phone is off the hook. And all the lines are lit up, which is more what's happening right now, more anxiety. So the lights are on and nobody's ever been abandoned by a call center. Think of it as a memorial to good service.
The Virtue of Fides is available as a tapestry at our Mark of Wisdom Shopify store:
Fides Wood Topped Wall Tapestry
