Part 10: Allegory - A summary

level.
The clear concept of allegory had to wait to the nineteenth century but its usage goes back at least to the Gospels. In an allegory everything means something else.
Moving from left to right, the first column represents the teaching of the Pope; the darkness represents the mystery of God; the clear light means man's capacity to apprehend truth; the red brick wall represents man's destructive capacity, and the last column represents clearly apprehended truth. The great, decorated column represents the pillar of truth and the grey bridge from that column to the column of clearly apprehended truth represents the working world of theology whereby one truth is related to another. The clear light represents the light of intellect meeting proportionate being and the shaded light represents the light of intellect meeting mystery. The chips indicate the passage of time. The laces around the lady's neck may indicate embryonic or future man, the gold button royalty and so power and the dented clock may indicate the prospect of truth shaped time. The floor pattern combines with the laces to echo Leonardo's geometric picture of man.
The only overall feature we have found to be not allegoric is what appears to be a self portrait of the artist in the architectural object emerging from the main column.
The question occurs, may the lady in black not be an historical figure at all? Might she be simply an allegory of truth?