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| Marco Bigio The Three Stages of Womanhood ca. 1540-45 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena |
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| Titian and workshop Allegory of Prudence (Three Ages of Man) ca. 1560-65 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
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| Paolo Veronese Venice receiving the Homage of Hercules and Ceres 1575 oil on canvas Gallerie dell' Accademia, Venice |
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| Jacopo Ligozzi Allegory of Virtue ca. 1577-78 oil on canvas Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
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| Federico Zuccaro Porta Virtutis (Gate of Virtue) Minerva Triumphant over Ignorance and Calumny (Allegory of Painting) ca. 1585 oil on canvas Galleria Nazionale delle Marche, Urbino |
Allegory of Evil in Italy
The Visconti put you on their flag: a snake
devouring a child, or are you throwing up a man
feet first? Some snakes hunt frogs, some freedom of will.
There's good in you: a man can count years on your skin.
Generously, you mother and father a stolen boy,
to the chosen you offer your cake of figs.
A goiter on my neck, you lick my ear with lies,
yet I must listen, smile and kiss your cheek
or you may swallow the child completely. In Milan
there is a triptych, the throned Virgin in glory,
placed on the marble below, a dead naked man
and a giant frog of human scale on its back.
There's hope! My eyes look into the top of my head
at the wreath of snakes that sometimes crowns me.
– Stanley Moss, from The Intelligence of Clouds (1989)
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| Jacopo Zucchi Allegory of the Creation 1585 oil on copper Galleria Borghese, Rome |
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| Felice Riccio (Felice Brusasorci) Allegory of Courage crowned by Fame ca. 1590 oil on canvas Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona |
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| Abraham Janssens Man hindered by Time and aided by Hope and Patience before 1632 oil on canvas Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Peter Paul Rubens Triumph of the Eucharist (cartoon for tapestry) before 1640 oil on canvas Musées Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels |
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| Pietro Liberi Fidelity and Peace ca. 1665-70 oil on canvas Fondazione Cavallini Sgarbi, Ferrara |
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| Giambattista Tiepolo Age and Death ca. 1715 oil on canvas Gallerie dell' Accademia, Venice |
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| Pompeo Batoni Time unveiling Truth ca. 1740-45 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Gaspare Diziani Triumph of Art over Ignorance before 1767 ceiling fresco Ca' Rezzonico, Venice |
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| Pietro Antonio Novelli il Disegno, il Colore e l'Invenzione (Allegory of Painting) 1768-69 oil on canvas Gallerie dell' Accademia, Venice |
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| Joseph-Marie Vien L'Amour fuyant l'Esclavage (Love fleeing Enslavement) 1789 oil on canvas Musée des Augustins de Toulouse |