Allegory of _Benifico_ by Paolo Veronese

Allegory of _Benifico_ c. 1550 - 1560

drawing, gouache, ink, indian-ink

drawing

toned paper

woman

gouache

possibly oil pastel

ink

acrylic on canvas

coloured pencil

underpainting

indian-ink

pastel chalk drawing

13_16th-century

painting painterly

watercolour bleed

watercolour illustration

watercolor

This black chalk drawing on blue paper, titled “Allegory of Benifico,” depicts a woman standing on a pedestal. The woman is richly dressed in a long gown and cloak, and she wears a crown. She is depicted with an outstretched hand, gesturing towards the viewer. The drawing, attributed to Paolo Veronese, likely represents Beneficence, the act of performing charitable deeds, and would have been completed in the mid-16th century. The drawing is currently part of the permanent collection of the Städel Museum.

Comments

stadelmuseum over 1 year ago

⋮

According to an original inscription on the back, this drawing is an allegory of charity. It belongs to a cycle of drawings of female allegories, a particularly popular motif for the decoration of Venetian villa interiors. Usually incorporated in a moral-theological pictorial programme, they were intended as an appeal to virtuous conduct in the Christian sense. In view of this work’s manner of execution, however, it can hardly have served as a mere preliminary study. Rather, brush drawings of this kind were collected by the educated nobility as independent artworks and bound into books to serve as a basis for scholarly discussion.