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Flegmaticus .3, Virgilius Solis, the Elder, ca. mid 1500s

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Bare-breasted young woman, with an owl perched on her shoulder and holding a short staff and a ladle, sits on a ram's back at water's edge as the waves crashing about her.

Flegmaticus .3, Virgilius Solis, the Elder, ca. mid 1500s

Flegmaticus, an engraving by the German artist Virgilius Solis, the Elder (1514–1562) is part of a series of works depicting the four humors as young women. Her phlegmatic disposition is associated with water and a ladle. An excess of phlegm made a person phlegmatic, or lazy, sleepy, and languid.

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