Dialectics (Dialectique)
Engraving, part of a series of twelve oval prints with allegorical representations of Minerva, Wisdom, the sciences and liberal arts. Most of them are represented by female figures (the exception being Physics, represented by Apollo), surrounded by pastoral landscapes, some of them with small towns with medieval buildings in the background. In the representations of liberal arts, Delaune depicts more detailed landscapes with fragments of classical architecture. This print presents an allegory of Dialectics, consisting of a standing woman with her hair turned to the right, her right foot lifted and posed against a cubical stone, playing a horn. At her feet are, on the left, books, a bunch of keys and what seems to be a rolled sheet of paper and, on the right, a goblet and, further away, an oven. The scroll of paper is a traditional attribute of Dialectics, but the keys are usually paired with Grammar. The fire and the oven are likely used as symbols for the fervor of discussion, in which dialectics takes an important role.
Artwork Details
- Title: Dialectics (Dialectique)
- Artist: Etienne Delaune (French, Orléans 1518/19–1583 Strasbourg)
- Date: 1569
- Medium: Engraving
- Dimensions: Sheet (trimmed): 2 1/4 × 1 5/8 in. (5.7 × 4.2 cm)
- Classifications: Prints, Ornament & Architecture
- Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1947
- Object Number: 47.139.36
- Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints
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