Old Money Gang Signs

I've been wandering around the planet for 30 years observing communities, rituals, and systems from the outside. Over time I've become super interested in what changes from place to place, and what stays the same.

Something that has become glaringly obvious to me, but which is too often a tough sell to others, is that most power is quiet, emanating from obscured relationships and secret agreements. This is true in friend groups, households, businesses, and governments.

There is the public-facing story, and what is really going on. We all know this, but it is socially and cognitively easier to ignore as much of this as possible and accept the public story.

That's why it's so enticing to bury secret messages in signs. You can say things publicly, but the message will only be received by the initiated.

If we want an accurate understanding of the world around us, we have to learn to see as much of this buried structure as possible. It's not fun. It's not easy. But it does improve the quality of our decisions and actions.

One great place to practice is with information obscured in signs and art.

The Purpose of Signs

Last summer I walked down a staircase in Marble Hill and got sucked past several different types of signs one after the other.

First, there were the unobtrusive official signs, marking various trails north.

Then there was the shouty grocery sign,

and finally the argumentative, underdeveloped graffiti.

And a few days earlier I'd been at The Frick, looking at centuries-old portraits of the great and the good.

It led to an epiphany.

ALL SIGNS ARE THE SAME. THEY ARE DESIGNED TO INFLUENCE BEHAVIOR.

Quality and message differ wildly, but graffiti telling rivals to keep out, grocery signs telling shoppers to come in, or paintings of a queen projecting strength and stability to her subjects are all engaged in the same basic mechanism: Attract attention. Send a message. Influence behavior and belief.

Every sign - whether it be high art or low commerce - is intended for a well-defined audience. The closer you are to the center of that audience, the louder the graphics will shout at you.

But if you're not part of the audience, the sign and message will be functionally invisible, especially in an attention-competitive environment.

This means you can load multiple messages into a single sign, sending different action-requests to different audiences with the same image. And it doesn't matter if it's graffiti, a commercial message, or an old painting.

• Look at the East Coast Greenway sign above. There's one audience that's just looking for the trail marker. There's a smaller audience that appreciates the cleverness of the north-south, trees-as-arrows graphic design.
• If you know SK from the graffiti pic, you feel something when you walk past this tag.
• If you're outside Elizabeth's kingdom, the painting above awes you with the Queen's splendor. But if you're a noble in her court, the eyes and ears remind you that Elizabeth has spies everywhere.

We don't tend to see groups we aren't part of or opposing. Because of this, the more obscure and improbable the audience, the less willing we are to believe the secret message is intentional, and not just a 'coincidence'.

That means Balenciaga can sexualize children and just claim it was an accident, because people don't want to live in a world where child exploitation by families and elites is a cornerstone of society.

But queens and kings don't collect intelligence for fun. They do it because it gives them an edge.

We should do the same. The more we understand the secret symbols surrounding us, the more plainly we can see the forces exerting influence upon us, and the better we can respond.

This is why you should care about secret symbols in commerce and art. And by starting with paintings from 400 years ago, we can get some psychological difference, making it easier to see these same effects in our own era.

Here's a great primer on how the Medici used portraits as propaganda.

Questions to Ask of Art & Commercial Signage

1. Who's the patron? What resources do they control?
2. Who's the artist or artisan? How much clout do they have?
3. Who's the obvious audience? The secret audiences?
4. If there's a subject in the art, what is their role?
5. What are the relative social positions of these parties? What organizations do they belong to? Who are their enemies?
6. What messages are they trying to send? What behaviors do they want to create?

Secret Symbolism in Art & Commerce

Below, is a non-scholarly, non-exhaustive, work-in-progress compendium of secret symbolism in works of art and commerce. It is mostly about paintings from the expansionist 1600s right now, around the time of the founding of New York City, but may expand to include other epochs.

I welcome your comments below.

This project started at the Frick Museum which does not allow photography nor permit unauthorized reproduction, so instead of including images, I have created links to see the works at the museum's official site. Sorry for the extra clicking.

Occulted Cocks Are Symbols of Virility

Direct discussion of sex is usually excluded from polite conversation, so creatives love to insert oblique references to virility, sex acts, and sex organs. This sends a message of power and potency to those willing to see it.

• Fragonard's The Progress of Love: Reverie. A satisfied looking woman, draped across a giant pillar that is obviously a penis. This work was made 20 years later as an addition to an original 4-panel production showcasing the 4 stages of love. While made much later, this panel was intended to hang in the same hall.
• Diego Rodriguez de Silva y Velázquez's King Philip IV of Spain. The painter depicts the king literally grabbing the shaft of a spear, protruding from his groin. Check out the hat hiding the privates too... as if it's just too much to show. The painter is puffing up the king, reminding bawdy-minded views that this king fucks. I'd say the painting worked because it's the featured image on Philip IV's Wikipedia page and Velazquez is mentioned in the first paragraph. Known as the Rey Planeta, Philip IV spilled his metaphorical seed all over the planet, extending the Spanish Empire to more than 12.2 million square miles. AND HE HAD 30 KIDS!!

Books and Letters Signify the Learned and Devout

If you see someone in an old painting surrounded by books and letters, you can assume they're a reader, and they want knowledge to be perceived as a personal virtue.

While men might get a pile of books, in portraits of women, there tends to be only a single book, usually the Bible or a book of poems, which speaks to their godliness, purity, and virtue.

• Carel van der Pluym's Old Woman with a Book. Again, a woman with a single, massive book, indicating her devotion to authority and tradition. This book is probably the Bible, right?
• Sir John Suckling by Anthony Van Dyck. Sir John's big ass book signifies his wisdom and learnedness. Suckling was on Charles I's Privy Council. nete quaesiveris extra
• Studio of George de La Tour. The Education of the Virgin. A chaste and pious woman showing what I presume is the Bible to a young girl by candle light.
• Alexander Allan's Sir Henry Raeburn. Raeburn himself was a Scottish portraitist and learned man. You'd expect to see a canvas in his portrait, but he was a painter of whom it was said, "You would never take him for a painter till he seizes the brush and palette." Raeburn was known for his varied interests and was later elected as president of the Society of Artists in Edinburgh, made a member of the Royal Scottish Society, and given a knighthood by his patron George IV.

Riding Gloves Declare a 'Man of Action'

Gloves indicate that the subject is a man of action, but also part of the elite. He rides a horse, goes places. Does stuff. A step down from wielding a sword, but still a sign of masculine virtue and adventurousness.

• Bronzino's Ludovico Capponi. Also a little knob-show on this one. In addition to the codpiece and the riding gloves, Capponi is also holding an obscured object in his right hand. The Frick speculates that this indicates that his future is unknown. I'm not sure I agree. I suspect there is a much more specific meaning known only to a very small audience.
• Corneille de Lyon's Portrait of a Man with Gloves. 1535. A fur coat and the gloves tell us this unknown man is a man of action. Also, I suspect he's making some kind of secret symbol with his right hand. Shoulder-fired guns were beginning to make a big impact on the battlefields of Europe by this time. Was this guy a trigger man?

Messages in Hand Imply Political Power

If you see a message in someone's hand, it means this person is a mover, a shaker, and a deal maker. They send and receive messengers, indicating their involvement in trade, politics, and often intelligence matters.

• Rembrandt's Nicolaes Ruts. Ruts was a German Mennonite merchant in Amsterdam who traded with the Russian colony at Arkhangelsk. Ruts wasn't super successful, filing for bankruptcy shortly before his death. However, his daughter was married to a successful merchant and they may have commissioned the painting, accentuating the subject's ability to make deals.
• Thomas Cromwell by Hans Holbein the Younger. 1532. Not to be confused with Oliver, who was a century later, Thomas Cromwell was chief minister for the wildly out-to-lunch Henry VIII. He is credited with creating 'true English governance' and paved the way for Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn. He was executed by his king, who later said, 'oops'.

Maps Speak of Expanded Horizons

In a pre-industrial world, many people never wandered more than 20 miles from their homes. Maps signified expansion, knowledge, commerce, and power. Seeing one in a painting implies exposure to broader horizons. Most of these images are from the 1600s, a time when Europe was sending many ships of exploration, rapidly expanding their concept of the world.

I don't have proof of this, but maps in paintings can also be used as a source of disinformation. Put a bad representation of a map into a painting, and you'll sow uncertainty as to what's really there. A person with one watch knows what time it is. A person with two is never sure.

• Jan Vermeer's Officer and Laughing Girl shows a man and a woman speaking in an uncertain context. The man is dressed in a naval uniform, and behind hangs a map. I see the woman seduced a bit by the idea of the broader world which the officer represents. Vermeer himself was seduced by maps. A provincial man seemingly obsessed with the expanding world around him. He often used wildly expensive and exotic paints. The Ultramarine he uses came from lapis lazuli mined in Afghanistan.
• Thomas Wijck's A Scholar in his Study. Mid-1600s. Wijck goes all-out here, with books, inkwell, a globe and a ton of other fine detail that shows a complex mind at work. I'm super jelly of this working environment.

A Hidden Hand Signifies Secret Work

A posture made famous by Napoleon, it is not uncommon to see portraits of men with their hand tucked inside their coats. On the surface, this symbolizes calm and gentlemanly leadership and is associated with the aristocracy.

This goes all the way back to Ancient Greece where Aeschines suggested it was bad manners to speak with an arm outside one's chiton. If your hands are tucked inside your clothes, you do not intend immediate violence.

This symbol is also frequently associated with freemasonry. In my experience, the hidden hand signals to others that the subject is involved in projects that common people wouldn't understand. It is a sign of involvement in secret work.

• Francis Cotes' The Hon. Booth Grey. This dude was the 2nd son of the 4th Earl of Stamford, a high-ranking noble. He was close friends and collaborator of Eyre Coot. Elected as a member of parliament, and founder of the Tarporley Hunt Club (1762), which is still operating today. The club's patron is the Prince of Wales (heir to the throne).
• Anonymous painting of Eyre Coote. He was close friends with Booth Grey. Coote was a senior officer in the East India Company and regarded as instrumental in Britain's capture of India.

A Gold Chain Mean Strength at the Back

A chain could have all kinds of meanings. Is the chain ornate or simple? Broad or delicate? More on this in the future.

For now, I think that a broad gold chain indicates someone with a lot of strong backing, either from kinsmen, guild, or military.

• Titian's Pietro Aretino. Aretino was a bit of a self-promoter, and would often gift portraits of himself, creating a bond between them and the artist. Pietro was also a
• Charles Van Dyck's 1633 Self-Portrait with a Sunflower. Van Dyck enjoyed the generous patronage of King Charles I. The sunflower is often referred to as a sign of loyalty, as it follows the sun (the king) as it moves across the sky. Van Dyck's gold chain is also called out, signifying the support he enjoys from the king, for which he is clearly demonstrating his loyalty.

What other semi-secret symbolism do you recognize in art? Tell me in the comments below.