THE ALLEGORY OF CONSTANCY
Artist Gerard de Lairesse
Liège, 1641 – Amsterdam, 1711
Date ca. 1685
Object type painting Medium, technique oil on canvas Dimensions 126 × 123 cm Inventory number 75.12
Collection Old Master Paintings
On view Museum of Fine Arts, First Floor, European Art 1600–1700 and British Painting 1600–1800, Cabinet 14
The painter and significant art theorist was greatly influenced by the French neoclassicists, which later earned him the nickname of the “Dutch Poussin”. This work, probably part of a series on the virtues, depicts an allegory of constancy. Despite the sensuality of the young girl seated in the focus of the composition, she exudes a sense of dignity. With a resolute gesture, she rejects the string of pearls and the mirror; symbols of vanity. The triumph of the virtue of constancy is reinforced by several other motifs: the broken arrow of Cupid, the embodiment of carnal desire; the figure of Danaë, condemned to a life of chastity by being imprisoned in a brass tower, who appears in the circular relief on the wooden chest; and the statue of the “unapproachable” Pallas Athene, virgin goddess of wisdom, visible in the background.
Szépmüvészeti Múzeum © 2019 - All rights reserved
Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)
