 According to Eddy De Johgh, Vermeer appears to have taken it from a 1636 emblem book by the Jesuit Willem Hesius, "Emblemata sacra de fide, spe, charitate".In the emblem, "Capit Quod Non Capit", a winged boy, a symbol of the soul, is shown holding a sphere reflecting a nearby cross and the sun.In a poem accompanying the emblem, Hesius states that the sphere's ability to reflect the world is similar to the mind's ability to believe in God.