Allegory of Virtue and Vice

1505

Lorenzo Lotto

Artist, Venetian, c. 1480 - 1556/1557

Set on a strip of land under a cloud-filled sky and in front of a stormy sea, a nude, light-skinned satyr reclines to our right as a nude, pale-skinned, blond child crouches over some objects on the dirt ground to our left in this vertical landscape painting. The satyr has with a man’s body and shaggy, goat’s legs. He leans over and peers into a golden urn, which has a round bottom and tall, flaring sides about the height of his torso. One hand holds the single handle and the other wraps around the body of the urn. The tips of the satyr’s ears are elongated and pointed, and the corner of his mouth curves up into an exaggerated smile in his brown beard. Red liquid pours from an object, perhaps an overturned urn, near the satyr’s outstretched leg and white liquid pours from another urn between us and the satyr. Next to the satyr, at the center of the painting, a thick, upright tree trunk is broken off abruptly but one shoot grows tall with emerald-green leaves. A translucent, shield-shaped object decorated with an open-mouthed, human face hangs from a pink ribbon around the broken trunk near the branch. A second shield outlined in red with a rearing, white lion against a royal-blue field leans against the foot of the tree to our left. Nearby, the pale, naked child holds a pair of sticks, possibly a compass, and reaches for other objects on the ground near the shield, including a white disk, a pair of small, red-covered books, a square and possibly a plumb line, a flute, pan pipes, and a scroll of paper. The ground and landscape around each person are distinctly different. To our left, the dirt ground under the child is littered with small rocks. Beyond a row of larger boulders, a sweeping field of lemon-lime green sweeps up into a bank of clouds. A small nude person with dark forms, perhaps representing wings, on their shoulders, arms hips, and ankles ascends a path up toward the clouds. To our right, the satyr reclines on green grass in front of a screen of three lush trees. Beyond, across the entire landscape, a choppy sea extends into the far distance beneath the steel-gray clouds above. A masted ship is swallowed by waves behind the satyr, to our right.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 25

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 56.5 x 42.2 cm (22 1/4 x 16 5/8 in.)
    framed: 70.17 × 58.1 × 8.26 cm (27 5/8 × 22 7/8 × 3 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.156

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Bernardo de' Rossi, Bishop of Treviso from 1505 until 1510.[1] Probably Palazzo Farnese, Parma. Antonio Bertioli, Parma, by 1791 until at least 1803. Giacomo Gritti, Bergamo, by c. 1880. (sale, Sotheby's, London, 9 May 1934, no. 129); purchased by Martin Asscher, London.[2] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold 1935 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York; [3] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] The painting bears his coat-of-arms.
[2] According to Kress records in NGA curatorial files.
[3] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:278. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/199.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1988

  • The Pastoral Landscape: The Legacy of Venice, The National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988-1989, no. 15, repro.

1997

  • Lorenzo Lotto: Rediscovered Master of the Renaissance, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti, Bergamo; Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 1997-1999, no. 3, repro.

1999

  • Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer, and Titian, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, 1999-2000, no. 99, repro.

2006

  • Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 2006-2007, no. 47, repro.

2011

  • Lorenzo Lotto, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2011, no. 50, repro.

2016

  • Aldo Manuzio: Renaissance in Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice, 2016, no. 26, repro.

2018

  • Lorenzo Lotto: Portraits, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; The National Gallery, London, 2018-2019.

2024

  • Hidden Faces: Covered Portraits of the Renaissance, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2024, no.30B.

Bibliography

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 114-115, no. 267.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 245, repro. 138.

1944

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 70, color repro.

  • Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 51, repro.

1945

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 97, repro.

1951

  • Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 92-94, repro.

1955

  • Berenson, Bernard. Lotto. Milan, 1955: 17-18, fig. 8.

1956

  • Berenson, Bernard. Lorenzo Lotto. New York, 1956: 2-4, pl. 8.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 51.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 160, repro.

1960

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Later Italian Painting in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 1960 (Booklet Number Six in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.): 26, color repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 138, 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: 1:170, 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: 157-158, fig. 385.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 202, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:277-280; 2:pl. 192.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 188, no. 214, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 235, repro.

1990

  • Lippincott, Kristen. "The Genesis and Significance of the Fifteenth-century Italian Impresa." In Chivalry in the Renaissance. Edited by Sydney Anglo. Woodbridge, UK and Rochester, NY, 1990: 74, fig. 17.

1992

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

1995

  • Humphrey, Peter. Painting in Venice. New Haven, 1995: 138-139, [140] col. fig. 101.

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. 3.

2002

  • Pfisterer, Ulrich. Donatello und die Entdeckung der Stile 1430-1445. Munich, 2002: 165 n. 151.

2004

  • Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 108-109, no. 84, color repro.

2010

  • Hofmann, Werner. Phantasiestücke—Über das Phantastische in der Kunst. Munich, 2010: 73-75, color fig. 34.

2011

  • Cohen, Arthur. "Ceci n'est pas une allégorie de la Vertu and du Vice." Le Monde de L'Art 2 Winter (January-March 2011): 53-55, repro.

2021

  • Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria. Lorenzo Lotto: Catalogo generale dei dipinti. Milan, 2021: 106-107, cat. I.6, repro.

Inscriptions

formerly inscribed on reverse: BERNARD. RVBEVS / BERCETI COM. PONT / TARVIS. NAT. / ANN. XXXVI. MENS. X.D.V. / LAVRENT.LOTVS P. CAL. / IVL. M.D.V. (Bernardo Rossi of Berceta, Papal Count [Bishop] of Treviso, age 36 years, 10 months, 5 days, Painted by Lorenzo Lotto, July 1, 1505)

Wikidata ID

Q369350

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