(12) memory and Juana

In a 1963 article, Isabel Mateo Gomez observed that the man in the cave could be identified as Saint John the Baptist, shown here in a picture from a Book of Hours that belonged to Juana and in a painting by Hieronymus Bosch or from his studio. This appears to be one of three possible correct interpretations: Samuel, Samson, and Saint John the Baptist, all of whom had long hair in connection with the Nazarite vow. Each of their biographies starts with the story of their mother, a barren woman who prays for a child. This means that in The Garden of Delights/El Jardín de las Delicias, Juana can be identified with Hannah, the mother of Samuel, the mother of Samson (whose name is not recorded), and Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist. The picture provides an example of a simple memory system that consists of just remembering how many items there are to remember. Most of the Rhetorica ad Herennium follows this system, starting near the beginning with "three kinds of causes which the speaker must treat: Epideictic, Deliberative, and Judicial." The three possible interpretations also draw attention to the beginning of the story and to the mother as the heroine, as in a 1645 painting by Jan Victors of Samuel and Hannah.