Winter, from The Four Seasons ,

ca. 1614–34

Magdalena de Passe was an engraver in her father Crispin’s workshop, garnering great fame in the Dutch Republic during her short lifetime. Working from her father’s designs, she engraved Winter as part of the series The Four Seasons. This cozy scene of a contented family by the hearth contrasts with the dreary Latin inscription: "Gloomy Winter announces old age to us, and that time of life usually brings stiffness because of the accompanying snow." While interior scenes of warmth and plenty represented winter allegorically, this image of a Dutch nuclear family also could be read as a secularized version of the Holy Family, complete with symbolic pets. A cat often was depicted with the Holy Family, possibly as a reference to the legend of a cat delivering kittens while Mary gave birth to Jesus in a nearby stable. The dog may represent fidelity—the bond of sacred marriage between Mary and Joseph—and, by extension, between the faithful and the Church.