Allegory
Piero di Cosimo·probably c. 1500
Historical Context
Piero di Cosimo's Allegory, painted probably around 1500, is characteristic of the Florentine master's enigmatic, intellectually complex imagery. Piero was famous for his strange, poetic imagination — Vasari described him as eccentric, living in squalor and refusing to have his garden tended. His allegorical paintings often resist simple interpretation, combining classical mythology with personal symbolism in ways that continue to puzzle art historians.
Technical Analysis
Piero di Cosimo's oil-on-panel technique blends Florentine linear precision with atmospheric effects absorbed from Netherlandish painting. The careful rendering of natural details alongside the enigmatic figural arrangement creates a dreamlike quality characteristic of his most personal works.
Provenance
Casa Gravaghi, Parma, by 1870. [1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold 1935 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, NY;[2] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] Galli, Aldo. “Tavole toscane del Tre e Quattrocento nella collezione di Alfonso Tacoli Canacci.” In _Invisibile agli occhi. Atti della Giornata di studio in ricordo di Lisa Venturini. Firenze, Fondazione Robert Longhi, 15 dicembre 2005. Florence, 2005_. Nicoletta Baldini, ed. Florence, 2007: 13-28, esp. 28 n. 69; repro. fig. 31. [2] See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/189.
See It In Person
More by Piero di Cosimo
Virgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist, Saint Cecilia, and Angels
Piero di Cosimo·c. 1505
The Return from the Hunt
Piero di Cosimo (Piero di Lorenzo di Piero d'Antonio)·ca. 1494–1500
The Visitation with Saint Nicholas and Saint Anthony Abbot
Piero di Cosimo·c. 1489/1490
The Nativity with the Infant Saint John
Piero di Cosimo·c. 1495/1505
