DESCRIPTION
The only clue as to the identity of the eye-catching female figures with their gesticulating arms, tumbling drapery and lively expressions, is the tilted jug held by one at the back, for this immediately suggests the Christian “Cardinal Virtue” of Temperance (who is normally shown in the act of pouring liquid from one such jug into another). Her ‘opposite number’ may be Prudence.
The general form and character of the stand is close to those of a pair of candlesticks with the coat-of-arms of Cardinal Agucchi in Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome. The figures are furthermore generally consistent in character with those found on a Reliquary of the Corpus Christi now in the museum of the Basilica of San Petronio, Bologna. This is regarded as being of Roman manufacture of around 1620.
LITERATURE
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