Italian, Florentine, 'An Allegory', about 1500

An Allegory

Italian, Florentine

Not on display

About the work

Overview

Propped up on a pink cushion, this young, fair-haired woman – the ideal of beauty in Renaissance Florence – gazes directly at us. She seems oblivious to the three chubby little boys around her, clutching at handfuls of pink roses.

This idealised beauty may represent fertility, with which the pomegranate – tucked under her arm – containing many seeds was often associated. The picture’s long horizontal format, the reclining blonde in a white dress and playful children recall Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, also in the National Gallery’s collection.

We do not know who the artist was, but the picture may be based on Venus and Mars. Like that painting, it may have been placed in the room of a newly wed Florentine couple in order to encourage fertility and, therefore, the birth of many children to carry on the family name.

In-depth

Propped up on a pink cushion, a young, fair-haired woman – the ideal of beauty in Renaissance Florence – gazes directly at us. Her hair rests in springy waves on her shoulders, and her loose white robe is gathered beneath her breasts and falls in rippling folds over her legs, revealing their form. It is probably intended to recall the chiton or tunic worn by the sculpted goddesses of classical antiquity.

She seems oblivious to the three chubby little boys playing around her, all clutching at handfuls of pink roses which come from a basket at her feet. One, beneath her arm, holds a bunch of black grapes while scattering his flowers on the cushion. A pomegranate tucked beneath her arm is partly cracked to reveal its seeds. The fruit, the flowers and her idealised beauty suggest the woman may represent fertility, which the pomegranate with its many seeds was often associated. The long horizontal format of the painting, as well as the classically clothed reclining blonde and the playful children, recalls Botticelli’s Venus and Mars.

The picture was in fact purchased as a Botticelli from the same London sale as Venus and Mars in 1874, when Botticelli was hugely popular with English collectors. The German art historian Waagen thought it was ‘one of the most remarkable of Sandro Botticelli’s mythological pictures. The forms are grand in conception, though the head, hands, and feet of the goddess show that they were taken from a living model.’ It was the more expensive and famous of the two pictures, which seems strange today, when Venus and Mars is recognised as one of Botticelli’s masterpieces. At the turn of the twentieth century the picture was connected with another Florentine painter called Jacopo del Sellaio, but this idea did not last for long.

We do not actually know who the artist was, but the picture may be based on Venus and Mars. Like that painting, it may have been placed in the room of a newly wed Florentine couple in order to encourage fertility and, therefore, the birth of many children to carry on the family name.

Key facts

Details

Full title: An Allegory
Artist: Italian, Florentine
Date made: about 1500
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 92.1 × 172.7 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1874
Inventory number: NG916
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection
Previous owners: Alexander Barker

Provenance

Probably identical with a picture in the collection of Cardinal Fesch at Rome (not among the pictures brought by him from France in 1815); 1841 Catalogue, No. 2320; Sale, 1845 (lot 1791), bought by Aducci. In the collection of Alexander Barker, London, where seen by Waagen; purchased at the Barker Sale, 6 June, 1874 (lot 89).

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2010

Close Examination: Fakes, Mistakes and Discoveries

The National Gallery (London)

30 June 2010 - 12 September 2010

Bibliography

1845

George, Galerie de feu S.E. le Cardinal Fesch, ancien archevêque de Lyon, primat des Gaules, etc., etc., ou catalogue raisonné des tableaux de cette galerie, accompagné de notices historiques et analytiques, Rome, 17 March 1845 - 18 March 1845
1857

G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being and Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss. […], translated from German by Elizabeth Eastlake, 3 vols, London 1857, vol. 3
1874

J.W.C. Carr, 'The National Gallery', Art Journal, 1874, pp. 257ff
1874

Christie, Manson & Woods, Catalogue of the Renowned Collection of Works of Art, Formed by that Distinguished Connoisseur, Alexander Barker, Esq., London, 6 June 1874 - 11 June 1874
1891

R. Redgrave, A Memoir, Compiled from His Diary, London 1891
1893

H.C. Ulmann, Sandro Botticelli, Munich 1893
1902

E. Jacobsen, 'Italienische Gemälde im Louvre', Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft, 1902
1903

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the Second to the Sixteenth Century, ed. R.L. Douglas, 2nd edn, 6 vols, London 1903
1908

H. Horne, Allessandro Filipepi, Commonly Called Sandro Botticelli, Painter of Florence, London 1908
1923

R. van Marle, The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting, 19 vols, The Hague 1923
1923

P. Schubring, Cassoni: Truhen und Truhenbilder der italienischen Fruhrenaissance: Ein Beitrag zur Profanmalerei im Quattrocento, Leipzig 1923
1932

B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works, with an Index of Places, Oxford 1932
1933

A.L. Mayer, 'Eine Venuskomposition aus dem Botticelli-Kreis', Pantheon, 1933, pp. 214-5
1937

E. Strong, 'Terra Mater or Italia?', Journal of Roman Studies, XXVII/1, 1937, pp. 114-26
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1960

M. Levey, 'Botticelli and Nineteenth Century England', Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, XXIII/3-4, 1960, pp. 291-306
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1986

K. Christiansen, 'Lorenzo Lotto and the Tradition of Epithalamic Paintings', Apollo, CXXIV, 1986, pp. 166-73
1996

M. Rohlmann, 'Botticellis "Primavera": Zu Anlaß, Adressat und Funktion von mythologischen Gemälden im florentiner Quattrocento', Artibus et historiae, XVII/33, 1996, pp. 97-132
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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You've viewed 6 of 14 works

Italian, Florentine, 'An Allegory', about 1500

About the work

Overview

In-depth

Key facts

Details

Provenance

Additional information

Source

Exhibition history

Bibliography

About this record

Images

More works by Italian, Florentine