Creative Commons License
Creative Commons License
Allegory of Painting
(Baroque Europe )
This young woman with her palette and brushes is not seriously engaged in painting. Contemplating her reflection in a mirror held by a winged cupid, she is a personification of the self-conscious beauty that was then the goal of art. A mask attached to her headdress with a golden chain symbolizes the potentially misleading view of reality that art can convey even when appearing to imitate nature.
Corvi's buoyant, cheerful forms are close to those of French rococo art of the period.
For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 426, pp. 536-537.
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Royal Collections, Turin, 1764, by commission; Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 526, by A. R. Mengs]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
Exhibitions
| 1995-1996 | Going for Baroque. The Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 12/26/1951 | Treatment | other; coated |
| 1/1/1952 | Treatment | stabilized; other |
| 1/1/1955 | Treatment | stabilized |
| 6/1/1957 | Treatment | loss compensation; coated |
| 9/9/1968 | Treatment | coated; mounted; cleaned; loss compensation |
| 10/1/1996 | Treatment | cleaned; coated |
Geographies
Italy, Rome (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Painted surface H: 23 13/16 x W: 28 7/8 in. (60.5 x 73.3 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.1011