Victorian era Christmas Card

The gift of love.

The gift of peace.

The gift of happiness.

May all these be yours at Christmas.

Allegory of Poetry

Auger Lucas (French Rococo Era painter, 1685-1765) | An Allegory of Poetry

As a literary device, an allegory is a metaphor in which a character, place or event is used to deliver a broader message about real-world issues and occurrences.

Allegory (in the sense of the practice and use of allegorical devices and works) has occurred widely throughout history in all forms of art, largely because it can readily illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

Writers or speakers typically use allegories as literary devices or as rhetorical devices that convey (semi-)hidden or complex meanings through symbolic figures, actions, imagery, or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.

Many allegories use personifications of abstract concepts.

Barbara Longhi (1552-1638) | Pittrice Manierista

Barbara Longhi è stata una pittrice Italiana.

Fu una stimata ritrattista, ma solo poche sue opere ci sono pervenute, in parte riconducibili all'attività svolta nella bottega del padre, dove le era affidato il compito di produrre piccole tele su tema religioso, destinate alla devozione privata.

Nacque a Ravenna, dove trascorse l'intera sua esistenza.

Era figlia di Luca (1507-1580), noto pittore manierista🎨 e di Bernardina Baronzelli.

Allegory of Music

Francesco Trevisani (Italian Rococo Era painter, 1656-1746) | An allegory of music

The word Music derives from Greek μουσική (mousike; "art of the Muses").

In Greek mythology, the nine Muses were the goddesses who inspired literature, science, and the arts and who were the source of the knowledge embodied in the poetry, song-lyrics, and myths in the Greek culture.

Allegory of painting

Artemisia Gentileschi🎨 (Italian Baroque Era painter, 1593-1652) | Self Portrait as the Allegory of Painting, 1638 (detail) | Royal Collection

First attested in English in 1382, the word allegory comes from Latin allegoria, the latinisation of the Greek ἀλληγορία (allegoría), "veiled language, figurative", which in turn comes from both ἄλλος (allos), "another, different" and ἀγορεύω (agoreuo), "to harangue, to speak in the assembly", which originates from ἀγορά (agora), "assembly".

Lucien Abrams (1870-1941) | Impressionist painter

A native Kansan, Lucien Abrams moved to Dallas with his family in 1873. He studied at Princeton, the Art Students League of New York, and the Académie Julian in Paris, living and traveling in Europe and Algeria from 1894-1914.

While Abrams’ style is diverse, the works he exhibited annually in Paris, and at the Art Institute of Chicago, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the National Academy of Design showed the influences of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, and Fauvism.

Hans Thoma | The Twelve Months, 1906-1908

Hans Thoma | January

Born in the Black Forest to a family of manual laborers, German painter, Hans Thoma (1839-1924) studied lithography in Basel in 1853, and after 1855 worked in Furtwangen with a miniaturist, painting watches and jewelry cases.

He entered the Karlsruhe Kunstschule in 1858 where his teachers included Ludwig Des Coudres, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, and Hans Canon. His major interest during this period was landscape.