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

Resonant

Lorenzo Lippi
Allegory of Innocence
ca. 1630
oil on canvas
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jan Swart van Groningen
Allegorical Figure of Ira (Wrath)
before 1553
drawing
British Museum

Heinrich Aldegrever
Allegorical Figure of Ira (Wrath)
1552
engraving
Loeb Art Center, Vassar College,
Poughkeepsie, New York

Anonymous French Artist after an engraving by Jan Sadeler
Allegory of Water
ca. 1600-1650
glazed terracotta relief plaque
Musée du Louvre

Jan Brueghel the Elder
Allegory of Air
1621
oil on canvas
Musée du Louvre

Corrado Giaquinto
Allegory of Winter
ca. 1740-50
oil on canvas
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Anonymous Italian Artist
Daedalus as Allegory of Sculpture
(his famous Labyrinth is depicted in the background)
ca. 1500
marble relief
Musée du Louvre

Lucas van Leyden
Allegorical Figure of Justice (Iusticia)
1530
engraving
British Museum

Alessandro Algardi
Allegorical Figures of Immortality
1644
drawing (funerary design)
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Jacques Sarazin
Allegorical Figures of Virtue and Victory
 before 1660
drawing (sketches for sculpture)
British Museum

Andrea Pozzo
Allegorical Figures creating a portrait
of Vittorio Amadeo II, Duke of Savoy
ca. 1688
drawing (print study)
British Museum

Monogrammist I.K. (German printmaker)
Allegorical Scene with Knight threatening Justice
ca. 1535-50
hand-colored woodcut
British Museum

John Bellany
Allegory
1964
 oil on panels (triptych)
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh

Jean Jouy
Allegory of the Insurrection of 10 August 1792
(episode in the French Revolution)
ca. 1793
agate cameo
Musée du Louvre

Abraham Janssens
Allegory of Joy and Melancholy
1628
oil on canvas
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Sodoma (Giovanni Antonio Bazzi)
Allegory of Love and Charity
ca. 1508
oil on panel
Musée du Louvre

Thomas Stothard
Allegory of Justice
ca. 1780
drawing
British Museum

On the Eretrians taken prisoners by the Persians (490 BC)

Leaving behind for ever the thundering Aegean,

Finding in Ecbatana these midland graves,

We take our farewell of all things Eretrian –

Of Athens, Euboea, and the encircling waves. 

– from the Greek Anthology, translated by Clive Sansom