Force

Force, or Fortitude, is one of the four cardinal virtues — Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, and Temperance — that formed the backbone of moral philosophy inherited from antiquity and transmitted through Christian scholasticism. As an allegorical figure, Fortitude was typically depicted with armour, a lion, or a column as her attribute, symbolising strength and endurance. Quellinus II's series of virtue allegories held by the Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp demonstrates the sustained civic and domestic market for such learned decorative painting in the Southern Netherlands. These works appealed to educated bourgeois and aristocratic clients who wished their interiors to reflect humanist values while maintaining Catholic orthodoxy. Quellinus was particularly well suited to this genre, having absorbed from Rubens the ability to give allegorical figures genuine physical presence and emotional warmth rather than mere symbolic rigidity.

Oil on canvas, the figure of Force is likely presented with her traditional heraldic attribute — armour or a column — as a marker of identification. The painting's relatively intimate scale suggests domestic rather than monumental use. Quellinus's handling of the drapery shows the influence of his father's sculptural training: folds are broad and plastic, modelled as if the cloth were carved rather than merely painted.