Omnia Vanitas (All is Vanity)
manner of Titian (Pieve di Cadore 1488/90 - Venice 1576)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1600 - 1699
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
127 x 120.9 x 2.6 cm
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257116
Caption
A full-length nude female is lying on a couch, lightly draped, looking upwards towards a painted plaque overhead on which is written: OMNIA / VANITAS - all is vanity - the symbols of which, a crown and sceptre, lie at her feet and, on the floor by her hand, are money bags and a pile of gold coins. It is an allegorical picture depicting one of the minor vices.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Omnia Vanitas, in the manner of Titian (Pieve di Cadore 1488/90 - Venice 1576). A full-length nude female lying on a couch, lightly draped, looking upwards towards a painted plaque overhead on which is written OMNIA / VANITAS (all is vanity), a crown and sceptre lie at her feet and on the floor by her hand are money bags and a pile of gold coins. Another version after the same lost original is in Glasgow Museums (190) and an engraving after an earlier engraving by Valentin Lefevre is also at Kingston Lacy, NT 1251202.
Provenance
Originally in the Widmann collection, Venice [a version was recorded in the Grassi collection, Venice in the 1720s and in the inventory of Scottish financier John Law (1671 - 1729)] but acquired by William Bankes (1786-1855) from the Marescalchi Collection in Bologna in 1820; thence by descent until bequeathed by (Henry John) Ralph Bankes (1902 – 1981) to the National Trust, together with the estates of Corfe Castle and Kingston Lacy and its entire contents in 1981
Credit line
Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
TITIAN (painted in black on gilded nailed-on label, bottom centre)
Makers and roles
manner of Titian (Pieve di Cadore 1488/90 - Venice 1576), artist
References
Humfrey 2012 Peter Humfrey, The Italian Paintings, Glasgow Museums, 2012, 26, fig. 1, pp. 98-99