I kept stumbling across this strange hand gesture when looking at European portraiture in the 1500s.
Often called the ‘W’ or Loyolan hand gesture. Essentially, it’s a hand with extended fingers, splayed across the chest, with the two middle fingers joined. It’s an elegant pose, but it’s an unnatural gesture for your hand to be in. For me, it actually hurts. I can’t imagine holding this pose for a portrait. If it’s not exactly comfortable for most people, why is it seemingly everywhere?
It’s seen frequently in Mannerist paintings, a Renaissance style that frequently exaggerated and elongated figurative features. El Greco (1541-1614) in particular used the ‘W’ gesture. But it pops up across centuries.
There’s just one problem: no one really knows what it means.
Theories and Possible Explanations
I’m going to go ahead and call it the ‘W’ gesture for ease.
Art historians, religious figures, and conspiracy theorists have studied the ‘W’ hand gesture and have come up with wildly different theories. Let’s explore a few.
Religious Sects
The 1500s were a tumultuous period in Spain. As with most periods, people were killing and exiling each other over God and country.
Case in point:
One theory hypothesizes that the ‘W’ gesture was a secret sign used by crypto-Jewish people in 16th-century Spain. Crypto-Judaism refers to Jewish people who outwardly “accepted” baptism to remain in Spain after the 1492 Alhambra Decree.
While the context fits the time period, it does seem unlikely that people would put their illegal status on display for all to see. It’s also a narrow focus, as you can see this gesture in portraits across Europe, too, not just in Spain. Including in places where Jewish people fled to and were not forced to convert, such as Florence.
The ‘W’ Gesture is frequently seen in the work of the Florentine Mannerist master, Agnolo Bronzino. It is seen in his religious paintings, as well as his portraits. And in different placements across the body.
Indeed, Bronzino (and his workshop) painted at least 25 versions of this portrait of Cosimo I de’Medici with this hand gesture. The same man who created the Jewish Ghetto of Florence… Some people have argued that maybe it’s actually an M, for Medici. Which, again, seems too limiting.
“Loyolan”
It has also been argued that the ‘W’ a symbol of sin and penance in Jesuit circles, hence the “Loyolan” gesture. I’m assuming it’s an homage to Christ’s five wounds, specifically the wound from the lance that pierced Christ’s side. But if that’s the case, why does the hand move around so much from painting to painting? Christ’s chest wound wasn’t on his hip or helmet. Also, the Jesuit order was founded in 1540, after this sign or symbol began to appear.
From what I can tell, this is based on one portrait of Saint Ignatius Loyola, the founder of the Society of Jesus. Saint symbology is generally well researched and codified. So again, the Loyolan connection seems very flimsy despite it being one of the names the gesture has taken on.
Also, Bronzino’s figures are cutting, dashing figures. Especially The Portrait of a Young Man, who isn’t going to repent anything.
Regardless, it seems like the gesture is not isolated to one religion. Perhaps it derived from something further back.
Syncretic Lactating Goddess Theory
Some cultural anthropologists argue that the gesture is an evolution from the image of breastfeeding goddesses. (Pseudo-zygodactylous)
It’s a well-researched theory, and there is admittedly some similarity between these paintings and the ‘W’ gesture, but I (an amateur) was unable to uncover many more that were strikingly similar to the gesture El Greco and Bronzino use. Often, only one finger splays out from the other three.
The argued reason? It’s a syncretic lactating gesture from ancient goddesses, like Isis, to Mary. By mimicking it, men seek eternal salvation and immortality and wrest control away from the divine mother.
While I want to go with this theory, it seems odd that high-ranking men would want to mimic breastfeeding. (I mean, I’m all for it, but it doesn’t scream power and prestige for that time.) Also, the ‘W’ gesture is not always placed in the chest area, as seen in Bronzino’s works.
‘W’ as the Sign of an Oath?
The Prado Museum holds that the ‘W’ gesture is likely a symbol of an oath to the crown.
Without doubt, the most convincing suggestion has connected this figure with the Second Marquis of Montemayor, Juan de Silva y de Ribera, a contemporary of El Greco who was appointed military commander of the Alcázar in Toledo by Philip II and Chief Notary to the Crown, a position that would explain the solemn gesture of the hand, depicted in the act of taking an oath.
While El Greco mainly used it in his religious paintings, we see it here in a more secular setting. (Though after seeing El Escorial, it’s hard to imagine anything regarding Philip II is secular.) Similar to the Florentine portraits of nobles, this lends credence to the idea that the hand gesture in Renaissance art was more than a religious one.
In Chirologia (1644) the English author John Bulwer takes on the tremendous endeavor to write down meanings to hand gesures. (Full title: Chirologia : or the naturall language of the hand. Composed of the speaking motions, and discoursing gestures thereof. Whereunto is added Chironomia: or, the art of manuall rhetoricke. Consisting of the natural expressions, digested by art in the hand, as the chiefest instrument of eloquence.) Some of these codified gestures still live on, in British Sign Language.
In it, the W gesture is seen with the caption, “Conscienter affirmo“, or “I affirm consciously”. It’s held on the chest as a pledge of faith, affirming or swearing. In Bulwer’s Anthropometamorphosis, the author portrait holds the same gesture. To him, anyway, the W gesture is a sign of affirmation.
If extrapolated, you could make the argument that you can consciously affirm most things, affirm your oath to God, King, Country, and your fate. It is broad enough to be applied to most of the examples used.
And yet, one size fits all feels off, especially as Bulwer mentions it should be on the chest.
Illuminati and Final Thoughts
Others think the sign could be a part of a club, specifically Freemasonry. Called the “triad claw”. I really don’t recommend diving into it, it is flimsy arguments that reek of mostly xenophobic or illuminati conspiracies.
Moving on.
Sort of. It’s possible that in the end, this pose was just fashionable. Maybe a signal to others that they were part of the in crowd. It’s just probably not Satanists or Freemasons. Plus, you know, women often use the gesture.
I will say it’s a sleek look that shows off long, elegant digits.
Perhaps artists thought, “Hey, that looks excellent, I’ll do that, too.”
But, a counterargument, it’s unlikely that a patron would spend ludicrous sums for the artist to just copy. A lot of the examples in this post are from masters, after all. Cheaper portraits would be rendered as simply busts. Hands are difficult and require more time and talent (and money). A case could be made that it must have meaning.
But another, stronger, albeit more boring, case can be made that this gesture has undergone many iterations over the years, and that the human hand can really only move in so many ways. Today, people might recognize it from anime.
So, we may never know the ‘true’ meaning of the gesture. But we can still admire it.
Read more:
Museo Del Prado: The Prado Museum English Guide
Portraiture: Facing the Subject (Critical Introductions to Art)
Chirologia – John Bulwer
Talk with the Hand! On the expressive art of chirology – Richard Highes Gibson
