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Overview

Best known for his portraits, altarpieces, and religious and mythological narratives, Piero di Cosimo created only one surviving allegory. In this painted personification of abstract concepts, a winged woman, largely nude despite her two layers of mantles secured by knots, extends a sprig of juniper and daintily holds a rearing stallion by a string. She has been convincingly identified as Chastity, who effortlessly contains the forces of Lust embodied by her virile steed. The figures occupy a rocky island adorned with barren trees, surrounded by a misty waterscape. The double-tailed mermaid who energetically parts the seas before them may be understood as a siren symbolizing the dangers of carnal passion.

In the Renaissance, recondite allegories such as this often adorned the covers and reverses of portraits, testifying to the virtues of their sitters. Piero’s panel may originally have decorated his likeness of Simonetta Vespucci in the guise of Cleopatra (Musée Condé, Chantilly). The work’s spare execution and delicate gray tonalities, punctuated by the brilliant red of the lady’s costume, would befit this secondary function. The evocative, even impressionistic atmosphere that envelops the figures is typical of Piero, whose powers of fantastic invention are matched by careful attention to the natural prospect.

Provenance

Casa Gravaghi, Parma, by 1870. [1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome); sold 1935 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York, NY;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.

Exhibition History

1938
Piero di Cosimo, Schaeffer Galleries, New York, 1938, no. 6.
2015
Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence, National Gallery of Art, Washington; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 2015, no. 17 (English catalogue), no. 11 (Italian catalogue), repros.

Bibliography

1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 152-153, no. 271.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 245, repro. 167.
1944
Frankfurter, Alfred M. The Kress Collection in the National Gallery. New York, 1944: 40, repro.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 62, repro.
1946
Douglas, Robert Langton. Piero di Cosimo. Chicago, 1946: 40, 119, pls. XX, XXI.
1958
Morselli, Paolo. “Piero di Cosimo, saggio di un catalogo delle opere.” L’ Arte 23 (1958): 86.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 76, repro.
1963
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:177.
1963
Grassi, Luigi. Piero di Cosimo e il problema della conversione al ‘500 nella pittura fiorentina ed emiliana. Rome, 1963: 71-72.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 103.
1966
Bacci, Mina. Piero di Cosimo. Milan, 1966: 78, cat. 17.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 91, repro.
1968
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 118-119, fig. 287, as The Propagation of Coral.
1970
Hull, Vida Joyce. "Piero di Cosimo's Allegory in the National Gallery, Washington: An Iconographical Study." M.A. thesis, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH, 1970.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 164, 645, as Allegory of Chastity?
1973
Finley, David Edward. A Standard of Excellence: Andrew W. Mellon Founds the National Gallery of Art at Washington. Washington, 1973: 79.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 392.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 268, repro.
1976
Bacci, Mina. L’opera completa di Piero di Cosimo. Milan, 1976: 86, cat. 7.
1978
King, Marian. Adventures in Art: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1978: 24, pl. 5.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:368-369; 2:pl. 267, as The Propagation of Coral.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 104, no. 75, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 311, repro.
1993
Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 812.
1996
Capretti, Elena, and Anna Forlani Tempesti. Piero di Cosimo: catalogo completo. Florence, 1996: 101, cat. 9.
2006
Geronimus, Dennis. Piero di Cosimo: Visions Beautiful and Strange. New Haven and London, 2006: 69-74, 75, 98, fig. 47, as Allegory of Chastity Triumphing Over Lust.
2007
Galli, Aldo. “Tavole toscane del Tre e Quattrocento nella collezione di Alfonso Tacoli Canacci.” In Nicoletta Baldini, ed. Invisibile agli occhi. Atti della Giornata di studio in ricordo di Lisa Venturini. Firenze, Fondazione Robert Longhi, 15 dicembre 2005. Florence, 2007: 13-28, esp. 28 n. 69, fig. 31.
2009
Schumacher, Andreas, et al. Botticelli: Likeness, Myth, Devotion. Exh. cat. Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main, 2009: 216, fig. 111, as Allegory of Chastity.
2010
Tazartes, Maurizia. Piero di Cosimo “ingegno astratto e difforme.” Florence, 2010: 35-37, fig. 8.
2012
Fiorenza, Giancarlo. “Tadpoles, Caterpillars and Mermaids: Piero di Cosimo’s Poetic Nature.” In Melinda Schlitt, ed. Gifts in Return: Essays in Honour of Charles Dempsey. Toronto, 2012: 169, fig. 6.4.
2014
Chiodo, Sonia, and Serena Padovani, eds. The Alana Collection, Newark, Delaware, USA. Vol. III: Italian Paintings from the 14th to 16th Century. Florence, 2014: 226.
2015
Acidini, Cristina. “Le metamorfosi della “Bella Simonetta.”” In Elena Capretti et al, eds. Piero di Cosimo 1462-1522: Pittore eccentrico fra Rinascimento e Maniera. Exh. cat. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 2015: 86-87, fig. 8.
2015
Brilliant, Virginia. “Piero di Cosimo in America.” In Gretchen Hirschauer and Dennis Geronimus, eds. Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2015: 88, 89.
2015
Hirschauer, Gretchen A. ““Building Castltes in the Air”: The Story of Piero di Cosimo.” In Gretchen Hirschauer and Dennis Geronimus, eds. Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2015: 3.
2015
Luchs, Alison. “Creatures Great, Small, and Hybrid: The Natural and Unnatural Wonders in Piero’s Art.” In Gretchen Hirschauer and Dennis Geronimus, eds. Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2015: 66, 68.
2015
Padovani, Serena. “La mostra su Piero di Cosimo: una proposta per il suo percorso nel contesto contemporaneo.” In Elena Capretti et al, eds. Piero di Cosimo 1462-1522: Pittore eccentrico fra Rinascimento e Maniera. Exh. cat. Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, 2015: 31.
2015
Padovani, Serena. “Piero and Portraiture.” In Gretchen Hirschauer and Dennis Geronimus, eds. Piero di Cosimo: The Poetry of Painting in Renaissance Florence. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2015: 38, 39..
2024
McHam, Sarah Blake. Piero di Cosimo: Eccentricity and Delight. London, 2024: 93-95, fig. 31.

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