#allegorical portrait

[art-allegory]

Allegorical Portrait of Dante

Artist: Florentine 16th Century

Date: 16th Century

Medium: Oil on panel

Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, United States

Description

A pale-skinned man sits, holding an open book next to his lap so the pages face us in this square painting. His body is angled to our right, and he turns his head farther in that direction, so his face is in profile. He has heavy brows, high cheekbones, and a prominent, hooked nose. His lower lip projects beyond his thin upper lip, and his chin juts out. He is lit from our right, so the hollows of his cheeks are in shadow. A vivid red cap encircled by a wreath of laurel leaves covers his dark hair. His long, cranberry-red robe splits over the shoulders to show navy-blue sleeves. His left hand, farther from us, braces the top of the open book, which comes up to chest height. A poem written in verses of three lines each in Italian can be read on both pages. The man’s other hand is lifted and hovers, palm down, over a miniature skyline by his side. The buildings there include a dome with a pointed lantern and two towers. A lighter tan area in the lower left corner, beneath the skyline, is difficult to interpret. The man sits on a grassy outcropping, which is mostly lost in the shadows. A body of blue water stretches into the distance beyond the outcropping to meet a conical mountain layered like a cake with ten sections. Trees grow on the narrowest, topmost level, and flames line the second level. A boat, tiny in scale, sails across the water near a grassy, zigzagging shore in the distance. Light from the upper right creates a creamy yellow beam across the otherwise darkened sky.

[a-sculpture-a-day]

Emperor Carlos V and the Fury, Leone Leoni, 1551-1555, bronze, Museo del Prado.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905) La Loyauté, 1876

[lionofchaeronea]

Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura), Artemisia Gentileschi, 1638-39

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Frank Weston Benson (1862-1951) "Summer" (1890) Oil on canvas Impressionism Located in the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC, United States

[marejadilla]

Victor Grasso, “The Queen”, 2023, oil on board. B. 1977, Cape May Court House, NJ, EEUU.

[illustratus]

Walk at Dusk (Man Contemplating a Megalith) by Caspar David Friedrich

Possibly a self-portrait

[solcattus]

Personification of Autumn

By Václav Brožík

[7pleiades7]

Purity of Heart (1752) by Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708−1787), oil on canvas, 98 × 73.5 cm, Royal National Trust, Uppark House, England

[canvasmirror]

Léon Frédéric (Belgian, 1856–1940) • Intérieur d’atelier (Art Studio Interior) • 1882

This enigmatic work is thought to be a self portrait depicting a fantasy scene of Frédéric in his studio. He is obviously naked, on his lap is a skeleton draped with a shear, star spangled cloth and holding a branch (I don't recognize the plant or tree). Draped around the studio are the artist's clothing, hat, and shoes. An allegory, perhaps.

Interestingly, Frédéric painted the same star cloth in the painting Allegory of Night (1891), below.

[pintoras]

Angelica Kauffmann (Swiss, 1741-1807): Self-portrait of the Artist hesitating between the Arts of Music and Painting (via National Trust Collections)

[sictransitgloriamvndi]

[i12bent]

Peter Martensen (b. Nov. 26, 1953) is a Danish portrait painter and artist providing a postmodern commentary on current culture. He trained at Det Fynske Kunstakademi and The Royal Academy in the 1970s and 80s.

Above: Pause, 2020 - oil on canvas

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Studio of Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708-1787) An Allegory of Meekness, n.d.

[lionofchaeronea]

Hesiod and the Muse, Gustave Moreau, 1891

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Frank Dicksee (1853-1928) "Chivalry" (1885) Oil on canvas