Allegory of Painting

Creator Name

Domenico Corvi

Cultural Context

Date

1764 (Baroque)

Source

Walters Art Museum

About the work

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, Allegory of Painting, visit the Online Collection of the Walters Art Museum.

Work details

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Title

Allegory of Painting

Creator

Domenico Corvi, male

Worktype

Painting & Drawing; oil paintings (visual works)

Cultural Context

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

Rights

CC0; GNU Free Documentation License

Inscription

Location

Source

Walters Art Museum

Subject

Topic

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

Domenico Corvi, Allegory of Painting, 1764 (Baroque), Walters Art Museum. CC0, GNU Free Documentation License.

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