The Wemyss Allegory in the Art Institute of Chicago

Abstract

When William Valentiner published the Allegory from the collection of the Earl of Wemyss (Fig. 1) in the first volume of his Unknown Masterpieces¹ he listed the earlier literature which had dealt with the painting. Such a bibliography testifying that the unknown masterpiece had not emerged from nowhere, but had already interested earlier critics, arouses confidence in the reading public of which the prospective buyer forms part. One of the witnesses called is Algernon Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions,² which, being only a compilation of the catalogues of exhibitions sponsored by the British Institution in London, states merely that the painting had been lent under the name of Titian by the Earl of Wemyss in 1835 (no. 116), and again in 1858 (no. 40); the first entry adds the remark: unfinished. More valuable is the testimony of Crowe and Cavalcaselle,³ whose book, the first thorough monograph on Titian, still remains an authority. Their testimonial would be the best introduction any author might wish for his first publication of an unknown Titian.