# Allegory of Fortune [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LIGOZZI, Jacopo]() - Date: 1551-1600 - Technique: Oil on panel, 44 x 27 cm ## Commentary This small panel, originally the door of a piece of furniture, or the back of a mirror, depicts the goddess Fortune, accompanied by all her attributes. The goddess is portrayed balancing on a globe, a symbol of the instability by which she is characterised. The red wings on her left foot indicate her fleetingness. On her right, a crown with a sceptre, an inkwell, two books and a ruler fall from above, all symbols of earthly powers and trades that are subject to the goddess's volubility. The coins sliding into the vase from a purse and coming out of it transformed into butterflies represent the transience of wealth. A winged figure, possibly a depiction of Time or Death, is offering Fortune a tray with an hourglass and some flowers, a reminder of the passing of time and the transitory nature of worldly goods. The fragile glass vase that the goddess is holding on the right-hand side could be a tribute to the interest that Francesco I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, paid to this kind of object. In fact, glass fusing, an activity Francesco practised as a hobby, was linked to the studies of alchemy, a branch of philosophy for which the Grand Duke harboured a passionate enthusiasm. The detail of the butterflies, painted in a highly realistic way, reminds us that Ligozzi's speciality was creating illustrations of plants and animals. Indeed, he produced many of these for both the Grand Duke and for the Bolognese academic and naturalist, Ulisse Aldrovandi. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Magi]() - [Agony in the Garden]() - [Agony in the Garden]() - [Christ Carrying the Cross]() - [Gerbil]() - [Model for a pietre dure table top]() - [Pineapple \(Bromelia ananas\)]() - [Portrait of Leopoldo de' Medici in Swaddling]() - [Psittacus Ararauna]() - [Sacrifice of Isaac]() - [The Rape of the Sabine Women \(detail\)]() - [The Rape of the Sabine Women]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()