Allegory with Figures of Hope, Time, and Death
1659–1734
Medium
Pen and brown ink, brush and gray wash, over red and black chalk
Dimensions
10 13/16 x 7 11/16in. (27.4 x 19.6cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Rogers Fund, 1967
Accession Number
67.65
Tags
Art Historical Context
Sebastiano Ricci, a leading Venetian painter of the late Baroque period (1659–1734), this intricate drawing titled *Allegory with Figures of Hope,, and Death*. Created during an era when allegorical themes flourished in European art, the work personifies profound human concepts: Hope, often symbolized by an anchor or radiant light; Time, with his scythe or hourglass; and Death, grim skeletal figure. These motifs drew from classical antiquity and Christian iconography, reminding viewers of life's fleeting nature and the virtues needed to face mortality—a popular subject in 17th- and 18th-centur...
About the Artist
Sebastiano Ricci · 1659–1734
Sebastiano Ricci (1659–1734) was born in Belluno, in the Venetian Republic, and received his early training in Venice, where he was apprenticed at age twelve to the Milanese painter Federico Cervelli. Some accounts identify Sebastiano Mazzoni as his first master. A youthful scandal involving an unintended pregnancy and a charge of attempted poisoning led to imprisonment in 1678, from which he was ...