It's an archetypal figure, personifying a very fundamental state of the human mind.
Salzburg painting of the 1150s can be seen in a lyrical female figure personifying the Third Hour, in the monastic Church of St. Peter.
The historian Martin Carver has argued that Wuffa is "best regarded as an emblematic figure personified from royal origin-myth" Later East Anglian kings claimed their right to rule by being descended from Wuffa, in the same way that the Kentish kings claimed descent from Oisc.
In several pictures, including two rear views of nude putti and two grisaille paintings of reclining figures personifying painting and sculpture, architectural settings suggest that the frescoes were designed to visually merge with the original construction of the house.
They are round, some being more convex than others; and the inside is engraved with scenes from classical mythology, with themes from the Old and New Testaments and the legends of the saints, or with allegorical figures personifying the virtues and the vices, the liberal arts, the seasons, and so on.
This is what happens whenever authority figures personify societal malignancy.
Name your theory after yourself, after a popular figure who personifies it, or after anything you want.
He soon began to recognize phrases and words that corresponded to imagery and references from Mr. McLaren's life growing up in postwar Britain and his time as the Sex Pistols' flamboyant manager, a cheeky, roguish figure who personified the late 1970s.
A few common examples are figures that personify the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude), the theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity), the arts, the church, victory, the seasons of the year, industry, and agriculture.
The figure of Lob ultimately personifies poetry and its role in collective memory: "This is tall Tom that bore / The logs in, and with Shakespeare in the hall / Once talked".
