Bernardo Strozzi, Italian, 1581-1644
Title: Allegory of Spring and Summer
Date: late 1630s
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions:
72 x 128 cm
Credit Line: Purchased, 1924 (Lane Fund)
Object Number: NGI.856
DescriptionThe young women seen here are personifications of two seasons. On the left is Summer, with sprigs of corn in her hair and holding a cornucopia full of fruits. Beside her, Spring carries two bouquets of flowers, with white viburnum in her right hand and iris, marigold and lily in her left. White roses stand out in her hair. The images of the two women, and their attributes, appear to have largely derived from the allegories of abundance and flora in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (first edition 1593).
Bernardo Strozzi is said to have trained in the workshop of Pietro Sorri, a well-regarded colourist painter. His career was spent initially in and around his home town of Genoa, where he became a Capuchin friar. He subsequently obtained leave of the order to look after his critically ill mother, while remaining a priest. Around 1631, after the death of his mother, Strozzi settled in Venice and rejoined the Church, although in a different order. He was made a monsignor in 1635. This canvas was most probably painted in the last period of the artist’s activity, when the colours he used became more delicate and the handling looser.
March 2016
Bernardo Strozzi is said to have trained in the workshop of Pietro Sorri, a well-regarded colourist painter. His career was spent initially in and around his home town of Genoa, where he became a Capuchin friar. He subsequently obtained leave of the order to look after his critically ill mother, while remaining a priest. Around 1631, after the death of his mother, Strozzi settled in Venice and rejoined the Church, although in a different order. He was made a monsignor in 1635. This canvas was most probably painted in the last period of the artist’s activity, when the colours he used became more delicate and the handling looser.
March 2016
ProvenanceAlessandro Aducci, Rome; Richard, 6th Viscount Powerscourt, Powerscourt, County Wicklow, 1836; purchased, Harris and Sinclair, Dublin, 1924
Exhibition HistoryHolbein and other Masters, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1950-1951
La Pittura del Seicento, Ca Pesaro, Venice, 1959
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Venetian Seventeenth-Century Painting, National Gallery, London, 1979
Il Giardino di Flora, Loggia della Mercanzia, Genoa, 1986
Master European Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 6 June - 9 August 1992; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, 19 September - 6 December 1992; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 13 January - 28 March 1993; IBM Gallery, New York, 27 April - 26 June 1993
Stille Welt - Italienische Stilleben aus drei Jahrhunderten, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, München, 6 December 2002 - 23 February 2003
La Pittura del Seicento, Ca Pesaro, Venice, 1959
Centenary Exhibition, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, October - December 1964
Venetian Seventeenth-Century Painting, National Gallery, London, 1979
Il Giardino di Flora, Loggia della Mercanzia, Genoa, 1986
Master European Paintings from the National Gallery of Ireland, The Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, 6 June - 9 August 1992; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, 19 September - 6 December 1992; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 13 January - 28 March 1993; IBM Gallery, New York, 27 April - 26 June 1993
Stille Welt - Italienische Stilleben aus drei Jahrhunderten, Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung, München, 6 December 2002 - 23 February 2003
Label TextThese women are personifications of the seasons as ancient goddesses. On the left is Ceres (representing summer), with ears of corn in her hair and holding a cornucopia of fruits. Beside her, Flora (representing spring) holds two posies and wears white roses in her hair. A native of Genoa, in northwestern Italy, Strozzi moved to Venice in 1631, and lived there for the remainder of his life. This painting displays the bold brushwork and delicate colouring that were characteristics of his work while living in Venice.