Empire Triumphant over Avarice

1610

Adriaen de Vries

Associated Names
Adriaen de Vries

Artist, Netherlandish, c. 1556 - 1626

Cast in bronze, one woman stands over a second crouching woman in this free-standing sculpture. Both women are nude, muscular, and have long wavy hair pulled back under bands. The golden-brown surface of the bronze is highly polished and smooth. In this photograph, the standing woman’s body faces us. Representing Empire, her head is encircled with a ring of laurel leaves, and she lifts her left hand, to our right, high overhead to hold up a second crown of leaves. She looks down onto the second woman, representing Avarice, and presses her hand into the Avarice’s shoulder, pushing the latter down. Empire balances on one foot and presses the other into Avarice’s hips, also destabilizing the latter’s stance. Avarice falls back onto one hand, which grips a purse on the ground. Avarice looks up at Empire with her mouth open and her left arm, farther from us, raised. Coins spill out on the square base, which is just big enough for Empire’s planted foot, the purse, and Avarice’s unstable feet.

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Adriaen de Vries won international fame for active bronze figures that reflect both his study of nature and his training in Florence with Giovanni Bologna, the greatest 16th-century sculptor after Michelangelo. De Vries's complicated poses continued the style known as mannerism, but he also saw ancient bronze sculpture as a model to surpass. He devised this group for Emperor Rudolph II, who had appointed him court sculptor in Prague in 1601. The figures were cast in one pour, a feat the emperor, fascinated with transformations in metal and other materials, would have appreciated. De Vries gave psychological force to this allegory through the rippling tension of the figures and the gaze that passes between them.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 21

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    bronze

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 77.3 x 34.8 x 31.8 cm (30 7/16 x 13 11/16 x 12 1/2 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1942.9.148

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Peter A.B. Widener [1834-1915], Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1988

  • Prag um 1600: Kunst und Kultur am Hofe Rudolps II, Kulturstiftung Ruhr, Villa Hügel, Essen-Bredeney, Federal Republic of Germany; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria, 1988, no. 60, repro.

1993

  • Dawn of the Golden Age: Northern Netherlandish Art 1580-1620, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1993-1994, no. 182, repro., as Allegory of the Triumph of Virtue over Vice.

1997

  • Rudolf II and Prague: The Imperial Court and Residential City as the Cultural and Spiritual Heart of Central Europe, Prague Castle Picture Gallery, 1997, no. I.129.

1998

  • Adriaen de Vries (1556-1626), imperial sculptor, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; Nationalmuseum, Stockholm; J. Paul Getty Mus., Los Angeles, 1998-2000, no. 24, repro., as Allegory of Imperium triumphant over Avaritia (shown only in Stockholm and Los Angeles)

2013

  • L'Europe de Rubens, Musée du Louvre-Lens, 2013, no. 140, repro.

Bibliography

1942

  • Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 9, as Virtue and Vice.

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 157, repro., as Virtue and Vice.

1949

  • Seymour, Charles. Masterpieces of Sculpture from the National Gallery of Art. Washington and New York, 1949: 182, note 48, repro. 147, 149-151, as Virtue and Vice.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 54.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 173, as Virtue and Vice.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 153, repro., as Virtue and Vice.

  • Seymour, Charles, Jr. "The Mercury in the Rotunda of the National Gallery of Art." Studies in the History of Art (1968-69):1-25, repro.

1978

  • Kaufmann, Thomas Dacosta. "Empire Triumphant: Notes on an Imperial Allegory by Adriaen de Vries." Studies in the History of Art vol. 8 (1978):63-75, repro.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 639, no. 1004, repro.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 296, repro.

1994

  • Sculpture: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1994: 235, repro.

2000

  • National Gallery of Art Special Issue. Connaissance des Arts. Paris, 2000: repro. 58, 59, 61.

Inscriptions

on base: ADRIANUS FRIES FE 1610

Wikidata ID

Q63809169

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