#allegorical portrait

[portrait-paintings]

Architect and His Muse. Portrait of James Caulfield, Lord Charlemont

Artist: Anton Raphael Mengs (German, 1728–1779)

Date: 1756-1758

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: National Gallery Prague, Czech Republic

Description

The signed portrait depicts the Earl of Charlemonte (1728-1799) as an architect clad in an antiquizing tunic holding a measuring scale in one hand and a ground plan sketch of a building in the other. The lord is leaning against a commemorative slab dedicated to Vitruvius. Placed on a high pedestal behind Charlemonte’s back is a bust of Andrea Palladio. The allegorical figure of Architecture is explaining to the draughtman that the study of Vitruvius is no longer purposeful and that instead he ought to turn his attention to modern architecture represented by Palladio. The painting was produced after the Earl’s return from his Grand Tour during Meng's professional career in Rome. Behind the execution of this painting are most likely the events associated with Piranesi’s volume entitled Antichita Romae, for the publication of which he had counted on Charlemont’s financial support that the Earl promised him in the past but which he later no longer acknowledged. Piranesi was outraged by the lord's behavior, however Charlemont lost interest in Piranesi's work, due to the development of his opinion regarding architecture and to his own practice in the Neoclassical style. In 1757, he wrote his Lettere di Giustificazione scritte a Milord Charlemont that he distributed among his Roman and British friends. Mengs also received one copy. The portrait of the Earl of Charlemont had probably been finished by then.

[allegorypaintings]

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.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

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

[life-imitates-art-far-more]

Maximilian Lenz (1860-1948) "A Song of Spring" (1913) Symbolism

[lionofchaeronea]

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

[from-a-spiders-web]

I have hidden inside a sea shell but forgotten in which. Now daily I dive, filtering the sea through my fingers, to find myself… “The Sea Shell” by Marin Sorescu 

[marejadilla]

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

[royalty-nobility]

Queen Maria Anna of Neuburg on Horseback

Artist: Luca Giordano (Italian, 1634-1705)

Date: 1693-1694

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Description

Barely six months after the sudden demise of Marie Louise of Orléans, who died without producing the much-desired heir who would ensure dynastic continuity, Charles II married Maria Anna of Neuburg (1667–1740). In a context in which the arrival of a successor to the throne was an issue of greatest importance, the fact that the new queen’s mother had given birth to 17 children seemed a guarantee of success. Nonetheless, the couple had no children, a fact which brought the Spanish branch of the Habsburg dynasty to an end. The hopes and expectations invested in Maria Anna of Neuburg are evident in the allegorical elements that accompany the queen in this equestrian image. The flower-filled cornucopia and the fruit held by small angels symbolise abundance and prosperity, while the naiads offering the bounty of the sea, together with the figure of the river god, refer to the queen’s fertility. It seems likely that both this portrait and that of Charles II, with which it forms a pair, were painted to commemorate Maria Anna of Neuburg’s official entry into Madrid in May 1690, as Rizi had done some years before to celebrate the arrival of Marie Louise of Orléans. From documentation of the period, it is known that the queen arrived on a richly caparisoned white horse, as we see her here, and that she proceeded on horseback through the city from the Buen Retiro Palace to the Alcázar.

[solcattus]

Personification of Autumn

By Václav Brožík

[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)

[allegorypaintings]

Allegory of Memory of Stadholder Frederik Hendrik (1584-1647) with a Portrait of his Widow Amalia of Solms Braunfels (1602-1675)

Artist: Govert Flinck (Dutch, 1615–1660)

Date: 1654

Medium: Oil on canvas

Collection: Mauritshuis, The Hague, Netherlands

Description

Portrait of Amalia of Solms-Braunfels as widow; allegory on the memory of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange. The princess is dressed in black with an opened book on her lap. On her right an allegorical figure wearing a helmet and holding a palm branch. A second allegorical figure, Hope, is kneeling in front of the princess holding an anchor and a flowering orange twig. Over them an angel flies pointing at the sky. In the background a monument with the statue of Frederick Henry in armor, being crowned with a laurel wreath by a flying putto. Two corners of the monument are adorned with statues of Justice and Fortitude (two of the four cardinal virtues). In the distance a phoenix arising from the ashes of its predecessor.

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

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

[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

[lionofchaeronea]

Hesiod and the Muse, Gustave Moreau, 1891

[from-a-spiders-web]

Pompeo Batoni - Purity of Heart, 1752