Many Meanings

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini
Allegory of Painting
ca. 1725-30
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Giovanni Antonio Pellegrini
Allegory of Sculpture
ca. 1725-30
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Pierre-François Berruer
Louis XV rewarding Painting and Sculpture
1770
marble relief (reception piece)
Musée du Louvre

Lambert-Sigisbert Adam
Allegorical Figure of Poetry
1752
marble statue
(commissioned by Madame de Pompadour)
Musée du Louvre

Alessandro Rosi
Allegory of Music
before 1697
oil on canvas
private collection

Girolamo Scaglia
Allegory of Music
ca. 1670
oil on canvas
Fondazione Cassa di Risparmio di Lucca

Jean Rousselet
Poetry and Music celebrating the Glory of Louis XIV
1686
marble relief (reception piece)
Musée du Louvre

Giovanni Andrea Sirani
Allegory of Three Sister Arts: Painting, Music, Poetry
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna

Paolo Veronese
Allegory of the Liberal Arts
ca. 1551-52
oil on panel (ceiling element)
Pinacoteca Vaticana, Rome

Michelangelo Morlaiter
Allegory of Venice rewarding the Arts
1756
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Jacob de Wit
Putti Blowing Bubbles as Allegory of the Arts
ca. 1720
watercolor and ink on paper
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Artemisia Gentileschi
Self Portrait as Allegory of Painting (La Pittura)
ca. 1630-35
oil on canvas
Galleria Borghese, Rome

Francesco Maggiotto
Allegory of Painting
before 1805
oil on panel
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Sebastiano Mazzoni
Allegory of Painting crowned by Fame
ca. 1640
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Bordeaux

Hans Speckaert
Allegory of Painting
(Apelles painting Alexander the Great)
before 1577
drawing
British Museum

Pietro Antonio Novelli
Allegory of Painting - il Disegno, il Colore e l'Invenzione
1768-69
oil on canvas
Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice

Guido Reni
Allegory of the Union of Disegno and Colore
ca. 1620-25
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

A Field

Once I belonged to Achaimenides –

Now to Menippos.  Some day

I shall pass on from this man to the next.

Achaimenides once thought I was his,

It is the turn of Menippos to share the illusion

Since I belong to no man at all, but fortune.

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by Peter Jay