Allegory of Painting

Creator Name

Domenico Corvi

Cultural Context

Italian

Date

1764 (Baroque)

Source

Walters Art Museum

About the work

Curationist Object Description

A woman contemplates her image in a mirror. She holds a painter's palette and a brush. A cherub holds the mirror, indicating this is not an image of a real painter, but rather an allegory of art itself. Drawing on Cesare Ripa's illustrated Iconologia, Corvi portrays painting as a “beautiful woman, with full black hair" and a mask.

Walters Art Museum Object Description

This young woman with her palette and brushes is not seriously engaged in painting. Contemplating her reflection in a mirror held by a winged cupid, she is a personification of the self-conscious beauty that was then the goal of art. A mask attached to her headdress with a golden chain symbolizes the potentially misleading view of reality that art can convey even when appearing to imitate nature.Corvi's buoyant, cheerful forms are close to those of French rococo art of the period.For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 426, pp. 536-537.

For the latest information about this object, oil paintings (visual works), visit art.thewalters.org.

Work details

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Title

Allegory of Painting

Creator

Domenico Corvi

Domenico Corvi, male

Worktype

Painting

Painting & Drawing; oil paintings (visual works)

Cultural Context

Italian

Material

oil on canvas

Dimensions

Painted surface H: 23 13/16 x W: 28 7/8 in. (60.5 x 73.3 cm)

Technique

Language

Date

1764 (Baroque)

Provenance

Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.; Royal Collections, Turin, 1764, by commission; Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 526, by A. R. Mengs]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Style Period

Neoclassicism

Rights

CC0; GNU Free Documentation License

Inscription

Location

Italy; Rome

Source

Walters Art Museum

Subjects

Woman; Cherub; Mirror; Art of painting

Topic

Mirrors

Curationist Metadata Contributors

Amanda Acosta

All Works in Curationist’s archives can be reproduced and used freely. How to attribute this Work:

Domenico Corvi, Allegory of Painting, 1764. Walters Museum of Art. Corvi followed contemporary scholars’ treatises which stated that the allegory of painting should be a “beautiful woman, with full black hair.” CC0.

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