Allegory of Italy
Returned to lender
This work of art was on loan to the museum and has since been returned to its lender.This allegory was painted for the papal nephew Cardinal Francesco Barberini. As in a tableau vivant, recognizable people have taken emblematic roles: a young woman has dressed as Italy (wearing a castellated crown, holding a shield, and standing on a cornucopia); two hairy-chested men play the parts of river gods (the Arno, with a lion, and the Tiber, with the twins Romulus and Remus and the she-wolf that suckled them). In this work, Valentin pushed the practice of painting from a posed model to its extreme, creating a unique masterpiece as radical as anything by Caravaggio. Indeed, even Gustave Courbet, two centuries later, did not surpass the realism of the models-cum-river gods. The painting occupied a place of honor in the cardinal’s residence and must have provoked fascinating conversations.
Artwork Details
- Title: Allegory of Italy
- Artist: Valentin de Boulogne (French, Coulommiers-en-Brie 1591–1632 Rome)
- Date: 1628–29
- Medium: Oil on canvas
- Dimensions: 10 ft. 9 15/16 in. × 96 7/16 in. (330 × 245 cm)
- Classification: Paintings
- Credit Line: Villa Lante al Gianicolo, Institutum Romanum Finlandiae, Rome
- Curatorial Department: European Paintings
Audio
318. Allegory of Italy
0:00
0:00
We're sorry, the transcript for this audio track is not available at this time. Please email info@metmuseum.org to request a transcript for this track.