Spes

The figure stands in a strong contrapposto pose, shading her eyes with her right hand as she gazes upward toward the divine. A large anchor, the traditional symbol of steadfastness and expectation, rests on the ground behind her. The print demonstrates the exaggerated anatomical style of Haarlem Mannerism, using swelling lines to define the volume of the body.

In the Neoplatonic and Christian traditions of the Renaissance, the Virtues were seen as essential qualities for the purification of the soul and its eventual ascent to the divine. This personification reflects the philosophical concept of 'expectatio,' a meditative state of longing for higher truth that was central to both Hermetic and late-Renaissance mystical thought.