Temperance
ca. 1538 (?)
Medium
Etching
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1927
Accession Number
27.78.2(104)
Tags
Art Historical Context
Andrea Schiavone's *Temperance*, an etching from around 1538, captures the Renaissance fascination with classical virtues through a dynamic composition of male and female nudes alongside the winged horse Pegasus. As one of the four cardinal virtues, Temperance symbolizes moderation and self-control, often depicted as a figure balancing liquids between vessels—a motif echoed here amid the fluid, intertwined forms. Schiavone, a Venetian active in the mid-16th century, drew from Mannerist influences like Parmigianino and Michelangelo,using his works with elongated figures and expressive energy th...
About the Artist
Andrea Schiavone (Andrea Meldola) · 1510–1563
Andrea Schiavone, born Andrea Meldolla around 1510 or 1515 in Zara (modern Zadar, Croatia), in Venetian-ruled Dalmatia, hailed from a family rooted in Meldola near Forlì in Romagna, Emilia-Romagna. His father, Simon Meldolla, served as a garrison commander there, and both parents originated from Meldola, where the family held property into the early 16th century. Nicknamed "Schiavone"—"the Slav"—a...