Allegorical Figure Representing Fortitude

A draped female figure stands in profile beside a tall, rough-hewn stone column, her left arm resting on it and a heavy cloak falling in folds around her feet. The figure is rendered in grisaille, in soft greys and browns against a dark ground, within an oval frame. Inscribed letters curve around the top and sides of the border.

Look closer: Faint lettering in the border, including the letters AVL at the top, reads as inscription around the oval.

Artist

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Date

1760

Medium

Fresco, transferred to canvas

Source

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Size

2827 × 3872 px

Credit (appreciated, not required for public-domain works): The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Bequest of Grace Rainey Rogers, 1943