Portrait of a royalist, c.1643 (oil on canvas)

Creator: William Dobson A half-length portrait of an unknown Royalist naval commander. He wears a salmon-pink doublet, with braid on his collar and sleeves. Over his left arm, a drape of blue material may also symbolize the sea. He holds the hilt of his sword in his right hand. In his left hand he holds a paper, thought to be either a chart, or his naval commission. Behind the sitter, to the left, a contrived sculptural relief of an allegorical female figure holds a globe and dividers. Globes symbolised learning and scholarship, and with compasses or dividers, and other instruments formed the attributes of geometry, one of the Seven Liberal Arts.