Allegory of gentleness
Details
Bowron 159f.
Description
Based on the original version in the Fetherstonhaugh Collection, Uppark House (inv. no. NT 138294). The concetto is based on the Beatitudes, specifically on the third teaching that Jesus gave to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). Meekness was already described in Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1593) in the form of a young woman with a lamb sitting on her lap, which alludes to Christ as the Lamb of God. Batoni also adopted this motif and depicts the personified virtue looking down good-naturedly at a tame lamb and holding its foreleg. Being kind and mild-mannered is often criticized as a weakness or equated with servile submissiveness. Bravery and ruthlessness, on the other hand, tend to provoke admiration. Nevertheless, it is gentleness that fights against irascible tempers and often causes them to fizzle out as they arise. It is not just to be understood as a way of behaving, but rather as an attitude. In ancient times, for example, gentleness was considered a typical characteristic of philosophers. For example, Socrates is described as gentle in Plato’s Phaedo.
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