Hope (Spes), one of the three theological virtues, is depicted as a woman with her hands folded before her breast and her face upturned towards heaven, signifying that she is not interested in earthly things, but yearns for goods which are not subject to the changes of time and to mortality. Beside her, two putti are supporting an anchor: this symbol originates from a passage in Saint Paul’s letter to the Hebrews, which says that we have in the hope of our souls “an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the veil” (Hebrews 6, 19). The style of the painting is based on models of the great Antwerp artists of the first half of the 17th century, in particular Anton van Dyck, and is manifested in the distinctly painterly interpretation, which is unfortunately impaired by the bad priming which the artist used. Until 1954 the Joanneum in Graz still had two canvases from the same series which showed Faith (Fides) and Charity (Caritas).