An Allegory of Painting
Oil Painting
17th century (painted)
17th century (painted)
| Artist/Maker |
A personification of Painting gestures towards the colour palette in her left hand while cupid, his arrows tossed aside, places a laurel wreath atop her head. This work recalls paintings by the followers of the Bolognese artist Guido Reni (1575 -1642) in style, colour palette and subject matter. Reni was one of the greatest and most influential of the 17th-century Italian painters, whose sophisticated and complex art dominated the Bolognese school. A classicizing artist, deeply influenced by Greco-Roman art and by Raphael but also by the mannered elegance of Parmigianino’s paintings, he sought an ideal beauty. In his religious art he was concerned with the expression of intense emotion, according to his biographer Malvasia, he boasted that he ‘could paint heads with their eyes uplifted a hundred different ways’ to give form to a state of ecstasy or divine inspiration. He was a subtle yet bold colourist, moving from the brilliant colour of his early paintings to the light tonalities and cool, silvery palette of his later work. 1380-1869 recalls Reni followers, Giovan Battista Bolgonini (1611/12-1688) and Giovanni Giacomo Sementi (1583-1636/42) and their works directly after compositions by the Master in particular. The figure of 'Painting' in the V&A picture for example shares the same short nose, large almond eyes, elaborate hairdress, pearl earing and upturned head as the female figure in Sementi's version (Matthiesen and Newhouse Galleries, New York) of Reni's Joseph and Potiphar's Wife now in the Getty Museum. The V&A allegory also recalls Sementi's version (Bolgona, Collection of the Casa di Risparmio) of Reni's Allegory of Drawing and Painting now in the Louvre, Paris. Both have a blonder, 'flatter' appearance than works by the Master and a similar way of painting 'boneless' hands. The subject of Reni's painting implies that Drawing (or Design Disegno) personified by a youth and Painting, embodied by a beautiful young woman, are united, like lovers, in creating harmonious works of art. Analagoulsy, in the V&A picture it appears that cupid, or Love personified, is the inspiration for Painting, and his gesture of placing the laurel crown atop her head suggests a reward for accomplishment in the arts and for victory in love. The notion that love was the ultimate source of inspiration for artists is a topos found throughout Italian artistic treatises of this period. The painting is perhaps also an allusion to Virgil's famous proclamation Omnia vincit amor or 'Love conquers all' (Eclogues 10:69) which was given visual expression by cupid standing triumphant in the midst of various symbolic objects including a laurel wreath or branch to represent learning and the arts. Equally, the crowning of Painting by a winged putto occurs in paintings celebrating the admission of Painting to the Liberal Arts as in Hans van Aachen's work on the subject now in a private collection in Brussels.
Object details
| Category | |
| Object type | |
| Title | An Allegory of Painting (generic title) |
| Materials and techniques | Oil on canvas |
| Brief description | Oil painting, 'An Allegory of Painting', Bolognese School, 17th century |
| Physical description | A personification of Painting gestures towards the colour palette in her left hand while cupid, his arrows tossed aside, places a laurel wreath atop her head |
| Dimensions |
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| Style | |
| Credit line | Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend |
| Object history | Bequeathed by Rev. Chauncey Hare Townshend, 1868 Historical significance: This work recalls paintings by the followers of the Bolognese artist Guido Reni (1575 -1642) in style, colour palette and subject matter. Reni was one of the greatest and most influential of the 17th-century Italian painters, whose sophisticated and complex art dominated the Bolognese school. A classicizing artist, deeply influenced by Greco-Roman art and by Raphael but also by the mannered elegance of Parmigianino’s paintings, he sought an ideal beauty. In his religious art he was concerned with the expression of intense emotion, according to his biographer Malvasia, he boasted that he ‘could paint heads with their eyes uplifted a hundred different ways’ to give form to a state of ecstasy or divine inspiration. He was a subtle yet bold colourist, moving from the brilliant colour of his early paintings to the light tonalities and cool, silvery palette of his later work. 1380-1869 recalls Reni followers, Giovan Battista Bolgonini (1611/12-1688) and Giovanni Giacomo Sementi (1583-1636/42) and their works directly after compositions by the Master in particular. The figure of 'Painting' in the V&A picture for example shares the same short nose, large almond eyes, elaborate hairdress, pearl earing and upturned head as the female figure in Sementi's version (Matthiesen and Newhouse Galleries, New York) of Reni's Joseph and Potiphar's Wife now in the Getty Museum. The V&A allegory also recalls Sementi's version (Bolgona, Collection of the Casa di Risparmio) of Reni's Allegory of Drawing and Painting now in the Louvre, Paris. Both have a blonder, 'flatter' appearance than works by the Master and a similar way of painting 'boneless' hands. The subject of Reni's painting implies that Drawing (or Design Disegno) personified by a youth and Painting, embodied by a beautiful young woman, are united, like lovers, in creating harmonious works of art. Analagoulsy, in the V&A picture it appears that cupid, or Love personified, is the inspiration for Painting, and his gesture of placing the laurel crown atop her head suggests a reward for accomplishment in the arts and for victory in love. The notion that love was the ultimate source of inspiration for artists is a topos found throughout Italian artistic treatises of this period. The painting is perhaps also an allusion to Virgil's famous proclamation Omnia vincit amor or 'Love conquers all' (Eclogues 10:69) which was given visual expression by cupid standing triumphant in the midst of various symbolic objects including a laurel wreath or branch to represent learning and the arts. Equally, the crowning of Painting by a winged putto occurs in paintings celebrating the admission of Painting to the Liberal Arts as in Hans van Aachen's work on the subject now in a private collection in Brussels. |
| Historical context | Pittura, or the allegorical representation of the art of painting as a female figure, made her appearance in Italian art sometime in the first half of the sixteenth century. The Biographer and Painter Giorgio Vasari was the first to make systematic use of female personifications of the arts. She reappears in art with increasing frequency in the later 16th and 17th centuries. |
| Production | This work was attributed to Carlo Cignani (1628-1719) in the 1893 Catalogue. In Kauffmann's 1973 catalogue he suggested instead that the painting belonged more probably to the Dutch or Flemish school rather than to the Italian. However, 1380-1869 demonstrates affinities with works by the followers of Guido Reni such as Giovan Battista Bolognini and Giovanni Giacomo Sementi. |
| Subjects depicted | |
| Summary | A personification of Painting gestures towards the colour palette in her left hand while cupid, his arrows tossed aside, places a laurel wreath atop her head. This work recalls paintings by the followers of the Bolognese artist Guido Reni (1575 -1642) in style, colour palette and subject matter. Reni was one of the greatest and most influential of the 17th-century Italian painters, whose sophisticated and complex art dominated the Bolognese school. A classicizing artist, deeply influenced by Greco-Roman art and by Raphael but also by the mannered elegance of Parmigianino’s paintings, he sought an ideal beauty. In his religious art he was concerned with the expression of intense emotion, according to his biographer Malvasia, he boasted that he ‘could paint heads with their eyes uplifted a hundred different ways’ to give form to a state of ecstasy or divine inspiration. He was a subtle yet bold colourist, moving from the brilliant colour of his early paintings to the light tonalities and cool, silvery palette of his later work. 1380-1869 recalls Reni followers, Giovan Battista Bolgonini (1611/12-1688) and Giovanni Giacomo Sementi (1583-1636/42) and their works directly after compositions by the Master in particular. The figure of 'Painting' in the V&A picture for example shares the same short nose, large almond eyes, elaborate hairdress, pearl earing and upturned head as the female figure in Sementi's version (Matthiesen and Newhouse Galleries, New York) of Reni's Joseph and Potiphar's Wife now in the Getty Museum. The V&A allegory also recalls Sementi's version (Bolgona, Collection of the Casa di Risparmio) of Reni's Allegory of Drawing and Painting now in the Louvre, Paris. Both have a blonder, 'flatter' appearance than works by the Master and a similar way of painting 'boneless' hands. The subject of Reni's painting implies that Drawing (or Design Disegno) personified by a youth and Painting, embodied by a beautiful young woman, are united, like lovers, in creating harmonious works of art. Analagoulsy, in the V&A picture it appears that cupid, or Love personified, is the inspiration for Painting, and his gesture of placing the laurel crown atop her head suggests a reward for accomplishment in the arts and for victory in love. The notion that love was the ultimate source of inspiration for artists is a topos found throughout Italian artistic treatises of this period. The painting is perhaps also an allusion to Virgil's famous proclamation Omnia vincit amor or 'Love conquers all' (Eclogues 10:69) which was given visual expression by cupid standing triumphant in the midst of various symbolic objects including a laurel wreath or branch to represent learning and the arts. Equally, the crowning of Painting by a winged putto occurs in paintings celebrating the admission of Painting to the Liberal Arts as in Hans van Aachen's work on the subject now in a private collection in Brussels. |
| Bibliographic references |
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| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1380-1869 |
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| Record created | February 21, 2007 |
| Record URL |
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