Date : near 1530
Material : Oil on canvas
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European Painting
Painting (Allégorie)
Area related
Italy
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| Description |  |
Found at a flea market and purchased for a modest sum by an anonymous buyer, the unwrapped, 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.
The woman in this work represents Fortune. She holds a horn of plenty, flaunting the bounty she could bring, but sits on a bubble because her favors are fleeting. The man, Chance, looks longingly toward Fortune as he deposits lottery tickets in an urn -a reference to the civic lotteries in Italy. This painting was probably made for Isabella d'Este, marchioness of Mantua, one of whose emblems was a bundle of lots, denoting her experience with fluctuating fortune.
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