Allegory of sight

The female figure recalls an engraving bu Robert Bonnart (1652-1733), an artist whose image deeply influenced the azulejos output of Master P.M.P.; here the woman appears as an allegory to sight, one of the five senses. Accordingly, the observation of the portrait of her loved one sparks in her memory images of the past, a stroll in a walled garden where a fountain is revealed next to an architectural structure with statues and niches. The fountain has three basins and a water jet projecting to a great height the water feeding the structure. In this context the fountain seems to evoke strength of that passion, the image of a desire that does not dominate the actors only because it is perfectly circumscribed by the conventions which at the time would have curbed any concession to sentimental exacerbation.