ticketsMember | Make a donation

The school of painting (Il Liceo della Pittura)

Pietro Testa Italian
Publisher Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi Italian
ca. 1638
Not on view
Pietro Testa was one of the most recondite artists of the seventeenth century. This technically ambitious and intellectually complex design articulates his ideas concerning the necessary balance and unity of theory and practice in art. The inscription on the scroll at left states, 'Theory by herself is chained with bonds, and Practice alone is blind in her liberty', each, then, is impaired and inadequate without the other. The operatic composition, which is closely based on Raphael's celebrated School of Athens fresco and includes an erudite cast of characters and personifications, elaborates aspects of this conceit and shows (at center) the steps by which theory and practice can be felicitously united.

For a copy of this print see 49.95.2325

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The school of painting (Il Liceo della Pittura)
  • Artist: Pietro Testa (Italian, Lucca 1612–1650 Rome)
  • Publisher: Giovanni Giacomo De Rossi (Italian, Rome 1627–1691 Rome)
  • Date: ca. 1638
  • Medium: Etching
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Gift of Juanita and Phillip Greenspan, in memory of their mothers, Ann Rose Tice and Clara Greenspan, 1996
  • Object Number: 1996.507
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
A slider containing 5 items.
Press the down key to skip to the last item.
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
Pietro Testa
ca. 1648–50
The Adoration of the Magi, set before and architectural colonnade
Pietro Testa
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
Pietro Testa
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

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.