Allegory of History, with Time

The allegorical figure of the History is represented as a winged figure looking backward as she writes on a tablet supported by Time. In a letter of November 16, 1987, Professor Renato Roli kindly assured the Museum that the old annotation on the verso of the drawing is accurate. Thus, the drawing is a study for one of the allegories painted in chiaroscuro on the walls of a room on the ground floor of the Casa Bovi Tacconi in Bologna, now used as a photographic studio. Most of the wall frescoes have disappeared under layers of whitewash. Only two allegories have survived, although heavily repainted, and Roli points out that in one of these chiaroscuri, facial types and framing motifs are comparable to the Museum's drawing. Bigari's ceiling fresco, representing Apollo crowning a figure of Painting, is intact (Roli 1977, pis. 69a and 69b). A drawing in pen and ink with watercolor for the ceiling fresco and part of its illustionistic architectural framework is in a private collection in Bologna (R. Roli, Settecento Emiliano, 1979, no. 178, fig. 260).