Allegory with a Flying Victory and a Seated Bearded Man with a Book

Allegory with a Flying Victory and a Seated Bearded Man with a Book

Battista Franco

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This drawing seems related in iconography, style, and technique to a sheet depicting an 'Allegory of Time' (private collection, New York; see 'Private Treasures: Four Centuries of European Master Drawings,' New York and Washington, D.C., 2007, pp. 36-39, no. 13), which probably dates to ca. 1560-61, and may be connected to an unexecuted project for the illustrations to a book, 'Pitture del Doni Accademico Pellegrino,' which was published in 1564 but without plates. It is therefore a late work by the artist. The composition of the Museum's sheet seems to represent the crowning of the seated bearded man holding an open book, who is therefore most likely a literary figure. This drawing was pasted down by an early collector onto a decorative mount, outlined in gold. (Carmen C. Bambach; 17 June 2015)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Allegory with a Flying Victory and a Seated Bearded Man with a BookAllegory with a Flying Victory and a Seated Bearded Man with a BookAllegory with a Flying Victory and a Seated Bearded Man with a BookAllegory with a Flying Victory and a Seated Bearded Man with a BookAllegory with a Flying Victory and a Seated Bearded Man with a Book

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.