PIETRO LIBERI
Padua, 1605 – Venice, 1687
Allegory of Justice
oil on canvas, cm. 68,5×55,5
dated: 1680 ca.
Pietro Liberi was born in Padua and enjoyed an adventurous early life, travelling extensively throughout Italy, Europe, and the Middle East. He subsequently lived in Rome, Florence and Siena, where he immersed himself in the study of the great masters and the leading painters of his time, including Pietro da Cortona; he eventually settled in Venice, where he received significant commissions. Liberi’s painting blended Baroque influences with refined references to the Venetian tradition, as evidenced by the monumental staging and lightened palette which he drew from Paolo Veronese, or the softened Titianesque style inherited from his teacher, Padovanino.
Allegories deserve particular consideration among the extensive array of works and subjects with which Liberi was engaged. In our painting, a young woman is depicted in accordance with the traditional iconography of Justice, as derived from Cesare Ripa’s volume “Iconologia”: She holds a sword in her left hand and a scale in her right, while a putto whispers in her ear and points towards the sky. It is highly probable that this work was originally part of a series of four paintings representing the cardinal virtues, namely the foundations of a righteous life, as described in the biblical Book of Wisdom: “And if a man loves righteousness, her labours are virtues: for she teacheth temperance and prudence, justice and fortitude”.