Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708–1787)
Time Unveiling Truth
INV-5113
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708–1787)1740–45
Time Unveiling Truth
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni (Italian, 1708–1787) →18th Centuryoil on canvasItalian
Date
1740–45
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
43.3 × 26.5 cm (17 1/16 × 10 7/16 in.); Framed: 52.1 × 35.6 × 3.9 cm (20 1/2 × 14 × 1 1/2 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Harold T. Martin Trust
Pompeo Girolamo Batoni crafted a complex mythological scene in this small-scale work, most likely a preparatory sketch for a larger, unexecuted or unknown painting. Father Time pulls aside a large swath of drapery to reveal Truth at the center of the composition, radiating revelatory light from the sun. The figures of Envy, winged and wearing a mask, and Discord, with a writhing tail, lurk in the shadow to the right. Beside Truth stands Justice, holding the pair of scales that signals her impartiality. Last, in the lower right, the personifications of Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture hold the tools of their trades.
Also notable
Works in the same vein
