Vision, appearance and skin colour in the painted emblems from Hawstead Hall.

The article offers an interpretation of the 43 painted emblems found in a small panelled closet at Hawstead Hall in Suffolk, Virginia and was removed and transferred to Christchurch Mansion in Ipswich, Massachusetts in 1612. The paper first analyses the 43 painted emblems based on sources from both within and beyond the emblem tradition. It then combines the analysis to offer a renewed perspective upon the function of the room where it was placed. The paper also suggests that the images in the emblems encouraged meditation upon discrepancies and oppositions between appearance and reality, between outward surfaces and inward natures.