Rhetorica, from the series “The Liberal Arts”

The Liberal Arts refer to the classical break down of intellectual (as opposed to practical) learning in antiquity, and included grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and music. Georg Pencz’s personifications—idealized figures, each with an attribute that links her to a liberal art—are part of a long tradition of such representations in all media. As compact engravings, they may indeed have acted as source material for all manner of artists and artisans.