Allegory of Chastity

c. 1505

Lorenzo Lotto

Artist, Venetian, c. 1480 - 1556/1557

A baby-like winged putto flies above and drops a stream of white flowers onto a woman who sits leaning against a cut tree trunk this vertical landscape painting. There are also two satyrs, who have the upper bodies and heads of people and the legs of goats. The woman and child have pale skin, and the satyrs have tan-colored skin. The central woman’s body is angled to our right, and her legs stretch in front of her on the grassy ground. She props her blond head against the hand supported by the tree trunk and looks to our right in profile. She has a round face, small nose, pursed lips, and a double chin. She wears a flowing white gown, and a flax-yellow cloak wraps around her shoulders and covers her lap. Above the woman, the putto has brown hair and wings, and wears a brown tunic that only covers the chest. The thin cloud on which the putto kneels is strewn with the same flowers being dropped down onto the woman. More flowers are gathered in the cloth of the putto's tunic, used like a basket. Lit from below, the putto looks down at the woman. The blond, female satyr looks and smiles at the woman from behind a spindly tree trunk to our left. More trees create groves on both sides of the scene. A male satyr with a dark goatee and hair leans against a low rock to face our right in profile in the bottom right corner of the composition. He holds up and looks at a small white urn. A stream runs from the rocky area in the lower right back to our left, and then zigzags through low moss-green and harvest-yellow hills. A band of smoky-gray mountains encloses the scene in the deep distance along the horizon, which comes about halfway up the composition. The sky is streaked with peach and pale yellow immediately over the mountains and deepens to ultramarine blue along the top edge.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

This small panel by Lotto can be dated to early in his career because of stylistic similarities to Allegory of Virtue and Vice, also in the National Gallery, signed by Lotto and dated 1505. That work originally functioned as the cover of a portrait, now in Naples, of Bernardo de' Rossi, bishop of Treviso. The Allegory of Chastity probably served a similar purpose. Covers not only protected the painting underneath but also allowed the artist to expand on particular facets of the patron's personality or concerns.

The subject of the panel has been the cause for much discussion. A variety of interpretations have been suggested, including the classical, Plutus and the Nymph Rhodos, and the literary, Petrarch's poetic vision of Laura. A cupid showers her with flower petals, while a female satyr gazes around a tree at a male satyr, who is more interested in his jug of wine. The composition is divided horizontally in two parts, the maiden and cupid seen on one level, the satyrs on a lower, baser level. It can be read as a choice between virtue and pleasure, virtus and voluptas, the chaste maiden in repose, or the satyr couple, symbolic in the Renaissance of lust and even evil. It was considered quite appropriate to associate such moralizing themes with portraits.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 42.9 × 33.7 cm (16 7/8 × 13 1/4 in.)
    framed: 55.25 × 46.36 × 5.72 cm (21 3/4 × 18 1/4 × 2 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.147

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Castelbarco collection, Milan; (Anonymous dealer, Milan); sold 1887 as Hans Rottenhammer to Sir William Martin Conway [1856-1937], Allington Castle, Kent, England; (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold 4 October 1934 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[1] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] The bill of sale was for three paintings (copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/191.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1894

  • Exhibition of Venetian Art, The New Gallery, London, 1894-1895, no. 80, as Sacred and Profane Love.

1905

  • Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1905, no. 18.

1914

  • The Venetian School. Pictures by Titian and his Contemporaries. Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1914, no. 21, plate XIV, as The Maiden's Dream.

1928

  • International Exhibition: Antiques and Works of Art Organized by the Daily Telegraph at Olympia, London, 1928, no. X29, as Danae: The Maiden's Dream.

1930

  • Exhibition of Italian Art: 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 403, as A Maiden's Dream (no. 345, pl. XCCCI in commemorative catalogue published 1931; not in souvenir catalogue).

1940

  • Night Scenes, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, 1940, no. 11, as A Maiden's Dream.

1979

  • Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 21, repro.

1988

  • The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 14, fig. 67.

1997

  • Lorenzo Lotto: Rediscovered Master of the Renaissance, Natl. Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1997-1999, no. 5, repro., as Allegory of Chastity ("Maiden's Dream").

2006

  • Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 2006-2007, no. 37, repro. as Allegory of Chastity ("Maiden's Dream").

2011

  • Lorenzo Lotto, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2011, no. 51, repro.

2013

  • Il Sogno nel Rinascimento [Florence], La Renaissance et le rêve: Bosch, Véronèse, Greco... [Paris], Galleria Palatina--Palazzo Piti, Florence; Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 2013-2014, no. 27, repro.

2024

  • Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2024, no.29B, repro.

Bibliography

1941

  • National Gallery of Art. Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. Washington, 1941: 114, no. 258, as A Maiden's Dream.

  • Richter, George Martin. "The New National Gallery in Washington." The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 78 (June 1941): 178.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 244, repro. 138.

1944

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: repro. no. 89

1945

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 96, repro.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 56, color repro.

1955

  • Berenson, Bernard. Lotto. Milan, 1955: 18-19, fig. 1.

1956

  • Berenson, Bernard. Lorenzo Lotto. New York, 1956: 4, pl. 1.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 161, repro.

1960

  • The National Gallery of Art and Its Collections. Foreword by Perry B. Cott and notes by Otto Stelzer. National Gallery of Art, Washington (undated, 1960s): 23, repro.

1961

  • Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 100, color repro. pl. 90.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 303, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 78.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:168, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 68, repro.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 158-159, fig. 386.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 200, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:275-277; 2:pl. 191, as Plutus and the Nymph Rhodos.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 191, no. 219, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 234, repro.

1992

  • Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria. "Laura tra Polia e Berenice di Lorenzo Lotto." Artibus et Historiae 25 (1992): 103-127, repro.

  • National Gallery of Art. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1992: 27, repro.

1997

  • Lorenzo Lotto: Rediscovered Master of the Renaissance. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington; Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1997-1999: no. 5.

1998

  • Colalucci, Francesco. Bergamo Negli Anni di Lotto: Pittura, Guerra e Società. Bergamo, 1998: 113-115, 122, repro.

  • Shefer, Elaine. "Dreams/Visions." In Encyclopedia of Comparative Iconography: Themes Depicted in Works of Art. Edited by Helene E. Roberts. 2 vols. Chicago, 1998: 1:259.

2002

  • Jugie, Sophie. “Consultation sur place” card for Lorenzo Lotto, Portrait de femme. Musée des Beaux Arts, Dijon. Dijon, 2002: verso, color fig. 6.

2013

  • The Editors. "Listings: Agenda." Apollo 117, no. 609 (May 2013): 21, color repro.

2019

  • Campbell, Stephen J. The Endless Periphery: Toward a Geopolitics of Art in Lorenzo Lotto’s Italy. Chicago and London, 2019: 128.

2021

  • Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria. Lorenzo Lotto: Catalogo generale dei dipinti. Milan, 2021: 114, cat. I.9, repro.

2024

  • Manges Nogueira, Alison. “Concealing portraits in Renaissance Venice: Jacometto’s painted box.” The Burlington Magazine 166 (February 2024): 129, fig. 7.

Wikidata ID

Q3612414

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