Helvetian

Helvetia is the female national personification of Switzerland, officially Confœderatio Helvetica, the Swiss Confederation.

The allegory is typically pictured in a flowing gown, with a spear and a shield emblazoned with the Swiss flag, and commonly with braided hair, commonly with a wreath as a symbol of confederation. The name is a derivation of the ethnonym Helvetii, the name of the Gaulish tribe inhabiting the Swiss Plateau prior to the Roman conquest.

The fashion of depicting the Swiss Confederacy in terms of female allegories arises in the 17th century. This replaces an earlier convention, popular in the 1580s, of representing Switzerland as a bull (Schweizer Stier).

In the first half of the 17th century, there isn't a single allegory identified as Helvetia. Rather, a number of allegories are shown representing both virtues and vices of the confederacy. On the title page of his 1642 Topographia, Matthäus Merian shows two allegorical figures seated below the title panel: one is the figure of an armed Eidgenosse, representing Swiss military prowess or victory, the other is a female Abundantia allegory crowned with a city's ramparts, representing the Swiss territory or its fertility.

Female allegories of individual cantons predate the single Helvetia figure. There are depictions of a Respublica Tigurina Virgo (1607), a Lucerna shown in 1658 with the victor of Villmergen, Christoph Pfyffer, and a Berna of 1682.

Over the next half-century, Merian's Abundantia would develop into the figure of Helvetia proper. An oil painting of 1677/78 from Solothurn, known as Libertas Helvetiae, shows a female Libertas allegory standing on a pillar. In 1672, an oil painting by Albrecht Kauw shows a number of figures labelled Helvetia moderna. These represent vices such as Voluptas and Avaritia, contrasting with the virtues of Helvetia antiqua (not shown in the painting).

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