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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
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Alexander the Great Rescued from the River Cydnus, Pietro Testa Italian, Oil on canvas
Alexander the Great Rescued from the River Cydnus
Pietro Testa
ca. 1650
Lobster-Tail Burgonet, Steel, leather, gold, North Italian
Lobster-Tail Burgonet
North Italian
ca. 1610
The Entrance Hall of the Regensburg Synagogue, Albrecht Altdorfer German, Etching
The Entrance Hall of the Regensburg Synagogue
Albrecht Altdorfer
1519
Allegory of Fortune, Pietro Testa Italian, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over black chalk, heightened with white
Allegory of Fortune
Attributed to Pietro Testa
1632–50
Armor, Steel, copper alloy, textile, leather, Italian
Armor
Italian
ca. 1400–1450 and later

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