Allegorical Figure (c. 1636): Art, History and Details

Allegorical Figure (c. 1636) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Bernardo Strozzi (Italian, 1581?-1644).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

During the 1630s, the Genoese artist Bernardo Strozzi painted a number of female figures representing various intellectual and artistic pursuits, reflecting the appeal of such allegories among learned patrons in northern Italy. Recent scholarship has convincingly identified the subject of this painting as Minerva. The Roman goddess of war has put aside her armor for more contemplative pursuits; her upward gaze—as if seeking inspiration—recalls her other associations with wisdom, eloquence, and the arts.

Object facts

• Title: Allegorical Figure
• Date: c. 1636
• Creator attribution: Bernardo Strozzi (Italian, 1581?-1644)
• Culture: Italy
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on canvas
• Dimensions: Framed: 178.5 x 133.5 x 12 cm (70 1/4 x 52 9/16 x 4 3/4 in.); Unframed: 145.8 x 99.8 cm (57 3/8 x 39 5/16 in.)
• Collection: P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1929.133

A detail from the museum

The preparatory drawing for this painting is also in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art (1953.626).

Collection credit

Gift of the Friends of The Cleveland Museum of Art

Further reading listed by the museum

• Thieme, Ulrich, Felix Becker, Fred. C. Willis, and Hans Vollmer. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1907.
• Milliken, William M. "Minerva by Bernardo Strozzi." The Bulletin of The Cleveland Museum of Art XVI, no.4 (April, 1929): 63-66.
• Siple, Ella S. "Art in America, Italian Baroque Painting." The Burlington Magazine LV (1929): 105-106.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.