Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

An Allegory of the Arts

François Boitard
approximately 1670-approximately 1715

An Allegory of the Arts

ca. 1700
14 3/4 x 9 1/4 inches (361 x 237 mm)
Pen and black ink over graphite on paper.
2008.69

Gift of William M. Voelkle in honor of Cara Dufour Denison.

Notes
Watermark: letters CDO.
At the center of this allegorical composition are female figures representing engraving (with a burin poised above a plate), painting (carrying a palette), and sculpture (clutching a torso and chisel), opposite a figure representing music who holds a lyre. The figure of painting, at left, is about to be crowned with a laurel wreath by Minerva, goddess of wisdom and patron of the arts. At right, the female figure bearing a torch, representing love or virtue, points to the painting of a herm surmounted by a figure that combines elements of the many breasted goddess Artemis, who represents fertility, with Atlas, supporting the globe, flanked by a lion, giraffe, and an elephant. In the foreground, a model book rests with its pages open at left, while a putto sketches at right. In the upper register, the ouroboros, or snake eating its own tail, with a shooting star, represents fertility and regeneration. At upper right is a winged female figure crushing grapes into a kylix held by a putto. Boitard included his signature on a sheet of paper in the lower left corner. Although a related print or frontispiece has not been identified, the inscription--Boitard invenit sculpsit--suggests that the artist intended to engrave his invention.
Inscriptions/Markings
Signed and inscribed at lower left, "François Boitard / inv. sculpsit".
Associated names
Voelkle, William M., former owner.
Classification
Century Drawings
School
Department