Why did the beautiful, 33 year old Lady Venetia Digby die suddenly in her sleep? No one has conclusively solved this mystery. Van Dyke painted her a few days after she died(1633) and the portrait hangs in Dulwich Picture Gallery.
Venetia Lady Digby as Prudence by Sir Anthony van Dyke
Phineas and I repaired to the Fox for lunch. He did not walk quickly and I was able to ask a few more questions abut the death of Venetia Digby:
‘Tell me about the other Van Dyke picture.’
The old man came to a halt and took out his wallet with unsteady hands. With some difficulty he extracted a dog-eared postcard of a painting. He handed it to me.
‘That’s it,’ he said, ‘painted by van Dyke at Digby’s request after Venetia’s death.’
We resumed our walk and I peered closely. The painting showed a young woman, Venetia. She is sitting with her foot on a child with its hand upon a fallen torch. A two-faced man couches and turns away. Over her head are cherubs holding a wreath. With her left hand she is stroking a dove and in her lap she holds a snake.
Phineas waved at the postcard and said:
‘There are vital clues in that picture and Ruskin considered them all with great care.’
‘Holding a snake in your lap is unusual. Presumably symbolic.’ I said.
Phineas harrumphed.
‘Signifying evil and deceit?’ I suggested.
‘Hardly. Her husband, Sir Kenelm Digby, wanted a picture that stopped the rumours about Venetia’s affairs. So the title given was ‘Prudence’ and the obvious biblical reference was Matthew: ‘wise as a serpent and gentle as a dove.’ ‘
We entered the Fox. Phineas was bit puffed by the walk. As he sat down, I ordered two pints of best and, at Phineas’ request, a round of prawn sandwiches.
‘I’m not big on chewing,’ he commented.
As we munched and sipped our way through lunch, I steered us back to the mystery:
‘Is there another interpretation?’
‘Ruskin considered all the evidence and all the possibilities. He consulted old letters and histories and made enquiries of medical friends. He said that if you have eliminated all the possibilities what remains must be the truth.’
‘I thought Sherlock Holmes said that.’ I said.
‘May I remind you,’ said Phineas sharply, ‘ Sherlock Holmes is a fictional character…’
Phineas continued, between munches:
‘Ruskin assembled his argument with his usual intellectual mastery. Fact one: sudden death of a healthy 33 year-old woman is very rare. Fact two: Sir Digby was an experimenter, an astrologer, alchemist and herbalist and avid maker of metheglins….’
‘Methe whats?’
‘Concoctions of wine, honey and herbs.’
a smallpox victim
Phineas went on:
‘Fact three: Venetia was a great beauty and like all such women she worried that her beauty might fade or even worse…’
‘Worse?’ I asked.
‘Much worse: all the years of her life, the country suffered from the plague. And fact four: in 1633, the year she died, there was a major epidemic of smallpox. The king himself had succumbed. Even if you survived, you were horribly scarred for life, perhaps blinded.’
‘What are you saying?’
Venetia, Lady Digby on her deathbed by Sir Anthony Van Dyke DPG194
‘Not me; Ruskin. In her deathbed picture, now hanging in Dulwich Picture Gallery, Venetia has one eye slightly open. Why? After all Sir Kenelm wanted the picture to remind him of her perfection. Her cheeks are pale. A rose lies with fallen petals on the bed sheet’
‘The rose signifies love?’
‘And its folded petals signify mystery. And the single open eye is an ancient symbol signifying arcane knowledge.’
‘Of what?’ I asked
‘A certain preventative and cure for smallpox. When correctly prepared it tastes sweet. Mildly intoxicates. There is a tingling and a numbness. But if the dose is too great, your heart slows and stops.’
‘What are we talking about? Hemlock? Belladonna? Foxgloves?’ I had quickly exhausted my knowledge of deadly herbs.
Phineas took on a mocking tone:
‘And not mandrake or henbane or hellebore either though they are all poisonous. Ruskin considered them all. Very thorough of course. No, those herbs would take too long or contort your body or stifle you and turn you blue. Venetia was not contorted or blue. Anyway they do not offer a cure for smallpox…’
“So?’
Phineas waved an empty glass towards the bar and it was clear that his memory would need further lubrication.
To be continued……
