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What symbols of love appear on the sleeve in The Laughing Cavalier?
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Frans Hals
The Merry Toper, oil on canvas by Frans Hals, c. 1628â30; in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
In the 1624 portrait The Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals, the sitter's sleeve features several intricate embroidered motifs that serve as symbols of love. These symbols include:
- Flaming torches
- Hearts and arrows
- Loverâs knots
- Bees1
The presence of these specific emblems suggests that the work may have been commissioned as a betrothal portrait.1