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Allegory of Winter

Pietro Testa Italian
Publisher Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi Italian
1644
Not on view
Testa's most concentrated and ambitious etchings are his four allegories of the seasons. Like all his prints, these manifest Testa's intellectual approach to his art, in which he embodied a complex personal philosophy. According to Testa, the human soul is governed by time and change and is imprisoned by the senses and passions. Winter is the last print of the cycle; here, the moon is ascendant at the left, and the mature, virtuous artist—winged, bearded man at the right—is now able to struggle upward, escaping from the figure of Envy below. He is supported by Virtue, who holds a laurel wreath before him.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Allegory of Winter
  • Artist: Pietro Testa (Italian, Lucca 1612–1650 Rome)
  • Publisher: Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi (Italian, Rome 1627–1691 Rome)
  • Date: 1644
  • Medium: Etching
  • Dimensions: Sheet: 19 11/16 × 27 15/16 in. (50 × 71 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1949
  • Object Number: 49.95.2322
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Plato's symposium: Socrates and his companions seated around a table discussing ideal love interruputed by Acibiades at left, Pietro Testa Italian, Etching
Plato's symposium: Socrates and his companions seated around a table discussing ideal love interruputed by Acibiades at left
Pietro Testa
Vicenzo Billi
1648
Achilles dragging the body of Hector around the walls of Troy
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ca. 1648–50
The Adoration of the Magi, set before and architectural colonnade
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ca 1650–60
Self portait as an artist, holding a drawing board and implement, Pietro Testa Italian, Etching
Self portait as an artist, holding a drawing board and implement
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Arnold van Westerhout
ca. 1645
The deluge, figures being pulled from the water, Pietro Testa Italian, Etching
The deluge, figures being pulled from the water
Pietro Testa
ca. 1640–42

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