Allegory of Virtue and Vice

Allegory of Virtue and Vice, 1505

oil on panel
National Gallery of Art, Samuel H. Kress Collection

The painting above once served as a protective cover that slid inside the original frame of the portrait of Bishop Bernardo de' Rossi, at left. Lotto delighted in using symbols to characterize his sitters. The bishop's erudition and virtue are symbolized by a putto or cherub studying mathematical and musical instruments and another, in the background, climbing the arduous path toward heaven. De' Rossi's coat-of-arms, propped up against the tree, faces away from the drunken satyr, whose bleak future is evident from the shipwreck in the distance.