Allegory of Wisdom, Giacomo Stella (Brescia 1545 – Rome 1630) (II/II)

The beautiful allegorical composition in question, which portrays a proud female figure with a double face, was originally conceived to be part of the representative furnishings of a large noble palace, and represents the personification of the cardinal Virtue of Wisdom (which corresponds to the Prudence of theology Catholic).

It is one of the four virtues which, together with Fortitude, Temperance and Justice, were classified by Plato in his Phaedrus, and then also adopted by the Christian religion, to enclose the main human virtues, equated to the pillars of a life dedicated to good and to righteousness.

For the ancients, Prudence was considered the most important virtue available to man and guide of all the others (auriga virtutum): specifically, it is the ability to discern, in every circumstance, our true good and to choose the appropriate means to be able to achieve it.

The iconographic representation, in our case, sees a woman with a statuesque physicality with two faces like Janus looking - wisely - in multiple directions at the same time.

The first face, young and therefore alluding to the present, is turned towards a mirror, which expresses the need for man to know himself and correct any defects before operating. The second face is that of an old man, and instead symbolizes past experience, without which the virtue of Prudence cannot be acquired.

A snake is coiled around the woman's right arm, an ancient symbol of Time which is cyclically renewed and of eternity, thus alluding to the perennial need to exercise this virtue.

The serpent is equally a symbol of the temptation that wants to lead us away from the safest path, recalling the passage from the Gospel of Matthew “Behold, I am sending you out like sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be prudent as serpents and simple as doves” (Matthew 10, 16).

The work, whose execution expresses elegance and power at the same time, can be traced back to Giacomo Stella (Brescia 1545 – Rome 1630), a significant mannerist artist active between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, originally from Brescia but active especially in Rome, where he moved at a young age, under the pontificates of Gregory XIII (1572-1585) and his successors Sixtus V (1585-1590) and Urban VIII.

In the papal city he came into contact with Girolamo Muziano and Cesare Nebbia, active in many of the major projects of the late 16th century commissioned by the papacy. Among these, the most important is the fresco of one of the major religious works of the time, the construction and decoration of the Sistine Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore (not to be confused with that of the Vatican), destined to become the funeral chapel for Pope Sixtus V .

A painter of great temperament and gifted with a beautiful naturalistic shot, his single hand was certainly responsible for the great frescoes of the 'Resurrection' and the 'Creation of Eve', at the Scala Santa in Rome.