Temperance

Temperance from around 1504 by Palma Vecchio depicts one of the four cardinal virtues, likely part of a decorative series. Virtue allegories were popular in Venetian domestic decoration, and Palma Vecchio's sensuous approach to the female figure gave such allegorical subjects particular appeal. His works display the sensuous warmth, rich color, and idealized femininity characteristic of the mature Venetian Renaissance at its most hedonistic. His sacre conversazioni—Holy Family groups in Venetian landscape settings—were among the most commercially successful images in early 16th-century Venice, produced in multiple versions by his workshop to satisfy consistent demand.

The allegorical figure is rendered with Palma Vecchio's characteristic warmth of color and broad, voluptuous forms that typify the Venetian approach to the female figure.