Monday, November 28, 2022

Allegorical Struggles (Vices and Triumphs)

Anthony van Dyck
Allegory of Strength defeated by Love
before 1641
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Peter Paul Rubens
Peace and War
(Minerva protecting Peace from Mars)

ca. 1629-30
drawing, with gouache and oil paint
Musée du Louvre

Giuseppe Passeri
Allegorical Scene of Triumph
before 1714
drawing
(study for ceiling painting)
Musée du Louvre

Antonio Molinari
Time vanquishing Beauty
before 1704
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Paolo de' Matteis
The Church triumphant over Falsehood
before 1728
drawing
Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum

Carlo Maratti
Painting attacked by Ignorance
ca. 1680-82
drawing
(study for print)
Musée du Louvre

attributed to Jacopo Ligozzi
Vice disrupting Scholarship
ca. 1590
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Jacopo Ligozzi
Triumph of Death
before 1626
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Charles Le Brun
Allegorical Figure of Discord
ca. 1650
drawing
(study for tapestry)
Musée du Louvre

Charles Le Brun
Allegorical Figure of Deception
ca. 1650
drawing
(study for tapestry)
Musée du Louvre

Paolo Farinati
Allegory of Fortune
before 1606
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Ludovico Carracci
Allegory of Poetry consoling Painting
ca. 1603
drawing
(study for funeral decorations for Agostino Carracci)
Musée du Louvre

Ludovico Carracci
Allegorical Scene of Triumph
ca. 1600-1619
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Bernardino Campi
Allegory on the Power of Oratory
before 1591
drawing
Musée du Louvre

Alexandre Cabanel
Triumph of Flora
(Allegory of Spring)

ca. 1869-73
drawing, with watercolor
(study for ceiling painting)
Musée d'Orsay, Paris

On Reading The Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall

1

So many had nothing; we have orchards
sometimes ill-neighboured, and are driven
to untimely harvest, simply to thwart thieves.
Our galleries may or may not be places
of seasonable resort.

2

Of Buildings and Of Gardens are themselves
exercises in prudence. He that builds
a fair house on an ill site doth commit
himself to prison
. The sentences also
rise and fall.

3

There are good whisperers and good magistrates
by a noble collusion that is the style.
Even perjury and simony set forth
at a steady pace and arrive in time
for their host to receive them

4

with due courtesy and writs of attainder.
Of Prophecies is not beyond our scope
nor Of Riches our means. Is this Senecan?
Of the True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates
is a major piece

5

whereas Suspicion is shortly dealt with.
What would men have? puts a radical question
as does the contest between wit and judgment.
Poverty is ... tedious, and means chiefly
poverty of mind

6

that can accommodate what we would call
amplitude and quickness, which may be barren.
Religion, Matters of State, Great Persons
are to be spared jesting, as is any case
that deserves pity

7

though whether the dispossessed figure at all
is a question unasked at my lord's table.
There is much made of precious ointment
which is a potent magnanimity
that carries poison, 

8

in my opinion, having read these things.
Dedications were tricky then; they're not now.
That's well worth an acknowledgement, a breather,
before the tide of dark keeping
sweeps us elsewhere

9

sputtering among the wreckage of late Demos.
So many had, and have, nothing; and Bacon
speaks of privateness and retiring. Consult
Of Judicature: the final book of Moses
is his landmark

10

and a good landmark, even: the mislayer
of a mere stone's to blame
. So property
and equity are quits. My parents
never owned a house. It could be said
that was their folly.

11

The poor are bunglers: my people, whom I
nonetheless honor, who bought no landmark
other than their graves. I wish I could keep
Baconian counsel, wish I could keep resentment
out of my voice.

– Geoffrey Hill (2007)