Allegory of the Arts
by ROTTENHAMMER, Hans I, Oil on copper, 28 x 21 cm
Copper was a popular painting support in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, and it was used for this Allegory. Pictura is inspired by her beautiful model (Venus), as Architecture devises a centrally planned château-fort; Poetry writes and Music strums the lute. Faintly in the manner of Veronese, this cheerily erotic tableau is typical of international Mannerism.