Picart after Correggio Allegory of Vice 1676 {1879} NGV [PR]

Picart, Étienne (1632-1721), after Correggio (1489-1534; Italian)
Image de l’homme sensuel… [Allegory of Vice] 1676
Engraving
Gift of George Collins Levey 1879
National Gallery of Victoria (p.183.7-1)

= Levey gift, cat.37 

Correggio’s Allegory of Vice, painted for Isabella d’Este’s Mantua studiolo in about 1530, was later owned by Charles I of England and then Cardinal Mazarin, before Louis XIV acquired it in 1661, reuniting it with its twin, the same painter’s allegory of Virtue: see now Picart after Correggio Virtue triumphant over Vice 1672 {1879} NGV [PR].

The inscription describes the sensual man as enchanted by lust, bound by bad habit, and tormented by conscience.

Refs.

Not listed in NGV 1894 or 1905 

For the NGV impression, see https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/explore/collection/work/37677 (not reproduced; as by an unknown engraver). Cf.Suite et Arrangement (1727), p.2; Duplessis Cabinet du roi (1869), p.7; and for another impression, see https://blogs.princeton.edu/graphicarts/2011/07/allegory_of_vice.html

For Correggio’s painting, see Louvre cat.II (1981), p.168, Inv.5927 (bought from Mazarin’s heirs in 1661)