Alex Salmond unveils one Bella of a Christmas card

HER pose, says the artist, is consciously modelled on Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. But the woman who stares boldly out of Alex Salmond’s new Christmas card is far from enigmatic.

Bella Caledonia, painted by Alasdair Gray, “personifies Scotland as a strong woman with a passion for social justice”, the First Minister said yesterday.

As with previous years, the original painting, commissioned for the occasion, will be auctioned next year with the aim of raising tens of thousands of pounds for four Scottish charities.

And also as with previous years, political analysts were at work yesterday to interpret exactly what Mr Salmond meant by his selection.

Last year, Jack Vettriano – who later backed Mr Salmond’s re-election campaign – painted a none-too-sutble pre-election number entitled Let’s Twist Again.

With the electorate having done so, Mr Salmond has now moved onto the altogether tougher ask of winning the forthcoming independence referendum.

Intriguingly, the unveiling of yesterday’s strikingly feminine painting coincided with a new poll on Scottish attitudes to independence which showed that – as has long been the case – cautious Scots women are far less taken by the idea of going it alone than their male counterparts. The Ipsos/Mori poll shows that 40 per cent of men support independence, as against just 30 per cent of women.

So is the strong patriotic feminist image of Bella Caledonia a thinly-veiled attempt to stiffen the spine of female voters?

Neither Mr Gray nor Mr Salmond strayed onto such vulgar political territory yesterday as the painting was displayed at the Oran Mor in Glasgow where another image of Bella Caledonia, painted by Mr Gray, can be found on the ceiling’s mural.

Celelbrated author Mr Gray, who wrote the critically acclaimed novel Lanark, explained the painting’s genesis. He said: “In Lewis Grassic Gibbon’s Sunset Song, the heroine is referred to at one point as Chris Caledonia. I called my character Bella Caledonia for the same reasons as Gibbon – because she is a representative of all Scotland.”

He added: “Bella Caledonia first appeared as an illustration in my novel Poor Things.

“She was wearing a Gainsborough-style hat, with a view of central Scotland behind her. The pose is based on the Mona Lisa, with crossed hands, looking sideways.

“The original is lost long ago, but I have painted different versions of Bella. I changed the hat to a Glengarry and put a tartan plaid over her shoulder. The character is a strong woman with an enquiring mind and a sense of social justice, the qualities we would like Scotland to have also.”

He went on: “That sense of social justice and compassion is reflected in the work of the charities who will benefit from the painting. At Christmas, that is very appropriate.”

Mr Salmond added: “Bella Caledonia personifies Scotland as a strong woman with a passion for social justice, and Alasdair Gray has said she represents the qualities that Scotland should aspire to – a view I am happy to endorse all the year round.”

The charities to benefit are the Children’s Hospice Association Scotland, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund, the Glenachulish Preservation Trust, and the Small Tribes Trust.