Time Unveiling Truth
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.)
Classification
oil on canvas
Department
Painting and Sculpture of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
51130
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
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 impart...