ROTTENHAMMER, Hans I
(b. 1564, München, d. 1625, Augsburg)

Allegory of the Arts

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Oil on copper, 28 x 21 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

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.