New photography by Pat Cagney captured with a digital camera.

Allegory of Life: The Dream of Raphael

Artist Giorgio Ghisi (Italian, 1520 - 1582)

Date1561

MediumEngraving

DimensionsOverall: 14 7/8 x 21 3/8 in. (37.8 x 54.3 cm)

ClassificationsEuropean art

Credit LineMuseum purchase, Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Art Purchase Fund

Object number2005.19

Terms

Humans
Men
Oceans
Boat
Animals
Trees
Podium
Dreams
Raphael
Portraits
Black
White
Renaissance

On View

Not on view

DescriptionThis is an engraving of an allegory of life. On the left side of the river, an old man surrounded by menacing animals leans against a rock, resting his head on his hands in an age-old gesture of melancholy and despair. He is beset by every form of foul weather and ominous astrological event. The Latin inscription at his feet -"the unhappy one sits and will sit forever". On the opposite bank, a woman carrying a spear strides toward the man through a paradise landscape blessed with fair weather and strewn with hopeful, Christian symbols. The inscription at her feet-"Do not yield to adversities, but go out to meet them bravely." -emphasizes her active virtue and stands in contrast with the man's despair. The print has traditionally had two subtitles-The Dream of Raphael and The Melancholy of Michelangelo.