Personification of Architecture

The Personification of Architecture, painted in 1636 and now in the Royal Collection, was produced alongside the Personifications of Painting, Sculpture, and Music as part of the allegorical series Orazio Gentileschi created for Charles I. Architecture as a feminine allegorical figure — one of the liberal arts — had deep roots in Italian visual culture, and Cesare Ripa's Iconologia provided authoritative descriptions of her attributes: a compass, a square, plans or architectural drawings. Charles I's interest in architectural patronage — he employed Inigo Jones as his court architect and was transforming English building in the Italian classical manner — made Architecture a particularly resonant subject for royal decoration. This canvas represents one of the most coherent surviving programs of Baroque allegorical painting in British collections.

Oil on canvas sharing the unified technical approach of the companion allegories. Architecture's attributes — compass, square, architectural plans — are rendered with the material precision Gentileschi brought to all objects in his canvases. Drapery is likely formal and structured, appropriate to the subject, in contrast to the more flowing robes of Music or Painting.