The theft of the Renaissance portrait provides the central puzzle of Death at the Sign of the Rook. Provisionally titled Woman with a Weasel, due to its unknown artist and sitter, the painting is cloaked in mystery, from the circumstances surrounding its disappearance to its hazy provenance. As a motif, Woman with a Weasel also illustrates the novel’s central themes.

The revelation that the painting is La Donna con Martora by Raphael and that Dorothy Padgett stole it illustrates The Moral Complexities of Justice. Throughout the novel, Atkinson contrasts characters solely interested in the monetary value of great art with those who appreciate its transcendent beauty. While the vivid power of the portrait immediately strikes Jackson, the Padgett twins are immune to its visual allure. Like Lady Milton’s sons, the Padgetts view artwork purely as financial assets. Conversely, the novel’s two art thieves, Dorothy and Beatrice, feel a spiritual connection to the paintings they steal. Dorothy’s theft of La Donna con Martora is an uncharacteristic impulse prompted by aesthetic awe, and her decision to hang the portrait behind her bedroom door is more than an attempt to hide its illegal origins. Her private view of the painting from her bed when the door is closed hints at how she cherishes the presence of its beauty in an otherwise disappointing life.