Georg Pencz
The Triumph of Eternity
1533-1543
Scroll
Georg Pencz
The Triumph of Eternity
1533-1543
Physical Qualities
Engraving, Sheet (trimmed within platemark): 138 x 228 mm. (5 7/16 x 9 in.)
Credit Line
Garrett Collection
Object Number
1946.112.5693
The subject of the Triumphs, a set of poems by the fourteenth-century Italian humanist Petrarch, became popular in Northern Europe after translations of the poems became available around 1500. Petrarch’s Triumphs describes a series of visions in which one figure triumphs over the next in succession (Love, Chastity, Death, Fame, Time, and Eternity). Taken together, these poems were understood to be an allegory of the salvation of the soul. Georg Pencz conceived of Petrarch’s poems as a series of six victories or processions, each overseen by an allegorical figure (or Christ in the final Triumph of Eternity) surrounded by appropriate attendants.
Inscribed: Recto: below image, lower center, in plate "VT. VENT.O RAPITVR. FVANTIS. SIC. GLORIA. MVNDO. / OMNIA. PRETEREVNT. PRETERE. AVTARE DEVM."; below image, lower right, in plate monogram "GP" Verso: upper center in graphite "+ / 3"; lower left in graphite diamond with "2418 / 6"
Markings: CM: Claghorn; Garrett
