Allegorical Group of Victory Supported by Valor

CC0 Public Domain Designation

1700/10

Francesco Bertos (Italian, active c. 1693–1739)

Francesco Bertos specialized in creating allegorical groups of great complexity in marble and bronze. Pyramidal in shape, these works consist of multiple figures generally embodying the triumph of virtue over vice. Here the subject is a winged personification of victory standing on a unicorn, the symbol of purity, and supported by the mythical Greek hero Hercules (wearing the hide of the lion he killed in the first of his 12 labors), representing valor. Below are figures who personify riches, prudence, agriculture and abundance, and honor overcoming deceit.

Status: On View, Gallery 215
Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe

Artist: Francesco Bertos
Title: Allegorical Group of Victory Supported by Valor
Place: Italy (Artist's nationality:)
Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.: 1700–1710
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 88.9 × 39.1 × 36.8 cm (35 × 15 5/8 × 14 1/2 in.)
Credit Line: Elizabeth R. Vaughan Fund
Reference Number: 1964.158
IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.: https://api.artic.edu/api/v1/artworks/20491/manifest.json

Ettore Viancini, “Per Francesco Bertos,” Saggi e memorie di storia dell’arte 19 (1994), p. 150, fig. 14 (incorrectly identified as in the Palazzo Reale, Turin).
Andrea Bacchi, La Scultura a Venezia da Sansovino a Canova (Milan, 2000), p. 699, fig. 244.
Charles Avery, The Triumph of Motion: Francesco Bertos (1678-1741) and the Art of Sculpture (Turin, 2008), pp. 83-85, ill., 224, no. 122, fig. 122.

Blumka Gallery, New York, by 1964; sold to the Art Institute, 1964.

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Allegorical Group of Victory Supported by Valor

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Date Dates are not always precisely known, but the Art Institute strives to present this information as consistently and legibly as possible. Dates may be represented as a range that spans decades, centuries, dynasties, or periods and may include qualifiers such as c. (circa) or BCE.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world. Learn more.

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IIIF Manifest The International Image Interoperability Framework (IIIF) represents a set of open standards that enables rich access to digital media from libraries, archives, museums, and other cultural institutions around the world.

Learn more.