Allegorical Figure

Bernardo Strozzi was a Genoese Capuchin friar who left his order to become one of the most original painters of the early Italian Baroque, eventually settling in Venice where his work combined the earthy naturalism of Caravaggio's followers with the rich Venetian colourist tradition. This ca. 1636 Allegorical Figure belongs to a type of single-figure painting in which Strozzi invested stock allegorical subjects with psychological vitality and physical presence that transform them from mere emblems into convincing human beings. Working in Venice from around 1630 until his death in 1644, Strozzi was a decisive influence on the city's seventeenth-century painting, introducing the directness and impasto richness of his Genoese-Caravaggesque formation into a tradition that had grown somewhat formulaic after the deaths of Titian and Veronese.

Strozzi's characteristically thick, juicy impasto is evident in the figure's flesh and drapery — paint applied with a broad, loaded brush that creates a physically generous surface full of textural incident. Warm reds and golden ochres dominate the palette, with shadow areas built from cool glazes over warm underpainting.