WIT, Jacob de
(b. 1695, Amsterdam, d. 1754, Amsterdam)

Allegory of Government: Wisdom Defeating Discord

1738
Oil on canvas, 51 x 39 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

This oil sketch is a modello for a canvas ceiling painting that Jacob de Wit executed in 1738 for the Alderman's Hall in the new wing of the Old Town Hall (Schepenzaal. Oud Stadhuis) in The Hague. The painting was removed (and later lost) in the nineteenth century, and the present picture is the only visual record of the lost canvas.