Allegory of Envy (c. 1505): Artwork and History
Allegory of Envy at the Art Institute of Chicago: date, artist attribution, materials and the museum's explanation of the work.
Allegory of Envy (c. 1505) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Cristofano Robetta Italian, 1462-c. 1535.
The work and its context
The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:
Flanked by younger couples entwined in erotic poses, an unaccompanied older woman appears to scowl. It is unclear whether the central figure, traditionally identified with envy, is the one experiencing the feeling or merely a visual symbol of it. Secular allegorical subjects were popular with Renaissance printmakers, especially in Italy. In this case, the Florentine engraver Cristofano Robetta copied German prints by Albrecht Dürer for the landscape in the background.
Object facts
- Title: Allegory of Envy
- Date: c. 1505
- Artist attribution: Cristofano Robetta Italian, 1462-c. 1535
- Place of origin: Italy
- Medium: Engraving on paper
- Dimensions: 23.3 × 18 cm (9 3/16 × 7 1/8 in.)
- Type: Print
- Department: Prints and Drawings
- Reference number: 1956.1044
Collection credit
Bequest of Mrs. Potter Palmer, Jr.
View the original
Explore the artwork in the Art Institute's collection, including its image and the museum's current catalogue details.
The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.
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