Symbolica
The Weeping Virgin, the Broken Column and Time

The Weeping Virgin, the Broken Column and Time

Death and the Skull as the central motif, with the Angel and the Wing and the Tree in a secondary part. From The True Masonic Chart, 1819.

Jeremy L. Cross, compiler; engraved by Amos Doolittle, 1826 printing, first published 1819. Engraving.

No known copyright restrictions, 1826 printing · Web copy 1004 by 1400 px · Internet Archive, Library of Congress copy, leaf 38

What is happening

Symbolica, 2026 Plate 18 of the chart, in the Master Mason degree. Cross's monitor, printed in the same volume, gives the lecture that explains each emblem on the plate in turn; it is the written key to this picture and is not yet quoted here.

Key · 3 motifs

The motifs the picture carries, filed by role. The marks on the picture itself come with the entry.

  1. 1Death and the Skullcentral motif as it reads here: The Weeping Virgin, the Broken Column and Time
  2. 2The Angel and the Wingsecondary motif
  3. 3The Treesecondary motif

The picture

A woman weeping over a broken column with an open book on it, a sprig in her hand and an urn beside her, while winged Time behind her holds a scythe and unfolds the ringlets of her hair. By eye

Not yet decoded: the key and the sourced notes come with the entry. Until then the motifs above are tagged by eye and said so.

Also carrying Death and the Skull

11 works carry it. The 6 where it is the central motif are here. The symbol.

Where the detail is the subject

the Angel and the Wing · the Tree

Each of these is in the picture without being what it is about. Below, one work that is about each.

In the same series

The True Masonic Chart, 1819

Record

Source
Internet Archive, Library of Congress copy, leaf 38
Rights
No known copyright restrictions, 1826 printing
Restoration
None. A 1004 by 1400 pixel web copy made from the source file; nothing retouched, nothing upscaled.
Series
The True Masonic Chart, 1819
Artist
Jeremy L. Cross, masonic lecturer of New Hampshire and Connecticut, 1783 to 1860, who compiled the chart and its monitor; the plates were engraved by Amos Doolittle of New Haven
Titled here
The Weeping Virgin, the Broken Column and Time. Internet Archive catalogues it as: The Weeping Virgin, the Broken Column and Time, from The True Masonic Chart, New Haven 1826
Checked
the Internet Archive item metadata, 4 September 2026: Cross as author, New Haven, 1826, contributed by the Library of Congress, which states it is unaware of any copyright restrictions. Doolittle's signature is engraved on some plates and the attribution of the rest to him follows the book's own title. What is quoted was read off the plate; the monitor's lectures are not yet quoted. Not seen in the hand.
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One symbol a week, decoded.

This picture is free at full size from its source, linked above. What an address gets is the Sunday letter: one picture, one symbol marked on it, what it meant and who said so, and the master files of the decoded plates as they are verified. Leave any time.

Cite
Symbolica, “The Weeping Virgin, the Broken Column and Time”, Jeremy L. Cross, compiler; engraved by Amos Doolittle, 1826 printing, first published 1819. thesymbolica.com/work/the-weeping-virgin-the-broken-column-and-time/