New photography by Ed Pollard captured with a digital camera-2007.

Painting and Music

Artist Francesco Bertos (Italian, 1678 - 1741)

Dateca. 1710

MediumBronze

Dimensions42 1/2 x 22 x 18 in. (108 x 55.9 x 45.7 cm)
Base: 20 1/2 x 18 in. (52.1 x 45.7 cm)

ClassificationsEuropean art

Credit LineGift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr.

Object number71.2608

Terms

Allegory
Art
Drama
People
Centauress
Bronze
Baroque
Rococo
Venice

Collections

European Art before 1945

On View

On view

DescriptionAt the base of THE DRAMA bronze sculpture are figures with painter's brushes and palettes, musical instruments and scores, quills and manuscripts. These figures personify the arts of painting, music and poetry, all of which contribute to a dramatic production. Also at the base is the winged figure of Time, portrayed as a defeated, kneeling figure. A centauress rears from a pedestal in the center. Surely he alludes to the eternal power of the drama and to the triumph of art over time. At the apex of the sculpture the female personification of Drama holds aloft a theatrical mask, balanced on the centauress back.

Label TextFrancesco Bertos Italian, 1678–1735 Painting and Music, ca. 1710 Bronze Like daredevil acrobats in the Cirque du Soleil, the figures in Francesco Bertos’ sculptures balance themselves atop one another in dizzying displays that draw the eye up and around in broad spirals. These breathtakingly complex sculptures originally served as table centerpieces and were meant to be viewed in the round. Their subjects are equally complex. Using the witty, allegorical language so beloved by Baroque artists, Bertos celebrates the arts of Painting and Music (behind you) and Sculpture, Arithmetic, and Architecture (behind you, at left). In the process, he gives shape to the intricate interplay of aesthetic ideals and human endeavor needed to bring those arts to fruition and to lift them to the pinnacle of creative perfection. Gift of Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. 71.2608