Getty Museum
Allegory of Fortune
Creator
Dosso Dossi (Giovanni di Niccolò de Lutero)Italian Artist · 1490–1542
All works by this person →Dosso Dossi's father was a land agent for the Este court in Ferrara. By the age of twenty-five, Dosso had spent time in Mantua and probably Venice and had begun to paint cabinet pictures with religious and secular themes. By 1517 Dosso was also working for the dukes of Ferrara. He spent most of his career there, often collaborating with his brother Battista. The Este family valued the arts and fos
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1530
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Paintings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Found at a flea market and purchased for a modest sum by an anonymous buyer, the seven-foot Allegory of Fortune was strapped to the roof of a car and brought to Christie's auction house in New York City. There, experts recognized it as an important, long-lost allegorical scene by the Ferrarese master Dosso Dossi. Dosso is well known for engaging with complex allegorical subjects, which are rife with symbolism. While a single interpretation of the painting’s subject has not been settled upon, Dosso's message seems to be that prosperity in life is transitory and dependent on luck. The nude woman represents Fortune, or Lady Luck. She holds a cornucopia, flaunting the bounty that she could bring, but sits on a bubble to show that her favors are often fleeting and could vanish in an instant. The billowing drapery is a reminder that she is changeable like the wind. Her single shoe symbolizes her capacity to bestow not only fortune but also misfortune. The man on the left personifies Chance. He looks over at Fortune and holds up a stack of lottery tickets, which he is about to place inside a golden urn, an allusion to the civic lotteries that had just become popular in Italy. The tickets may also refer to the painting's probable patron, Isabella d'Este, Marchioness of Mantua (1474 – 1539). One of her emblems was a bundle of lots, denoting her personal experience of fluctuating fortune.
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