Some thoughts on this paper about a gesture that crops up in a lot of paintings. (via)
If the paintings given are a representative sample (and there’s no guarantee they are), the “syndactyly” hypothesis seems unlikely - the paintings show five right hands and two left hands, while syndactyly affects both sides of the body without preference.
The “secret society” theory is interesting - that kind of performative secrecy is the bread and butter of esotericism. The funny handshakes of the Masons are an example of this.
But there may be a much more mundane explanation than secret societies: five of the examples could be “Conscientér affirmo” (I consciously affirm) from John Bulwer’s Chirologia. In other words, the language of rhetorical gesture, which would fit with both the time period and the context:
Quote
To lay the hand open to our heart, using a kind of bowing gesture, is a garb wherein we affirm a thing, swear or call God to witness a truth, and so we seem as if we would openly exhibit unto sense, the testimony of our conscience, or take a tacit oath, putting in security that no mental reservation doth basely divorce our words and meaning, but all is truth that we now protest unto.
— Bulwer, John (1644) Chirologia: Or the Natural Language of the Hand. Thomas Harper, London source
Heart. Bowing gesture. Truth.
Note
That text just drifts into blackletter for a sentence or so. I’ve never seen that before. Did the typesetter sit at the wrong tray? Or am I missing something?
Quote
This expression has been most observed in the ancient Grecians, as Chrysippus saith, who from this natural expression of the hand, concludes the lodging of the soul to be about the heart.
— Bulwer, John (1644) Chirologia: Or the Natural Language of the Hand. Thomas Harper, London source
So according to the book, positioning the hand over the heart appears to be critical to the gesture. That covers four of the examples in the paper, maybe five.
I’ve done a bit more digging, and Tiziano: Problemi di iconografia by Erwin Panofsky specifically references Bulwer’s Conscientér affirmo when describing Titian’s Allegory of the Marquis del Vasto. I can’t find an image of it, but I can find copies, and they all have the bowing gesture with the right hand. That’s six right, two left now - the incidence of left-handedness is about 10%, so that’s where I’d expect the count to be converging, if it’s a gesture.
