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Notes
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This idealised beauty may represent fertility, with which the pomegranate – tucked under her arm – containing many seeds was often associated. The picture’s long horizontal format, the reclining blonde in a white dress and playful children recall Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, also in the National Gallery’s collection.
We do not know who the artist was, but the picture may be based on Venus and Mars. Like that painting, it may have been placed in the room of a newly wed Florentine couple in order to encourage fertility and, therefore, the birth of many children to carry on the family name.
Title
An Allegory
Date
about 1500
Medium
Tempera and oil on wood
Measurements
H 92.1 x W 172.7 cm
Accession number
NG916
Acquisition method
Bought, 1874
Work type
Painting
The National Gallery, London
Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England
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