Allegory of Carnal Love
c. 1530
Cristofano Robetta Italian, 1462-c.1535
Italy
Cristofano Robetta’s Allegory of Carnal Love depicts a scene of love and death in a friezelike composition, with two pairs of lovers in a triangle-like formation with a putto at each point. Standing at the far left of the scene is an enigmatic divine figure drawing in the bodies of the lovers closest to him with his sash. Is he, like the skull underfoot, a symbol of death, reminding the viewer of what lies in store?
Engraving on ivory laid paper