An Allegory of Truth and Time
An Allegory of Truth and Time is a 1584-1585 oil on canvas painting by Annibale Carracci, now on display in Hampton Court as part of the Royal Collection.

It is not mentioned in any of the 17th century biographical sources on Carracci's life and it is thought to have been in England by the early 18th century at the latest. The first definite reference to it dates to the mid 19th century, by which time it was in Queen Victoria's collection and thought to be by an unknown artist. Roberto Longhi and Hermann Voss assigned it its present attribution in the early 20th century.

Its style is very close to that of the artist's work on the "Lives of Jason and Medea" frescoes at the Palazzo Fava in Bologna, produced around 1584 with his relations Agostino Carracci and Ludovico Carracci. For this reason it is sometimes argued that the canvas was commissioned by that palazzo's owner, Filippo Fava. Its style and composition are both close to a drawing for a "Judgement of Paris" (Fogg Art Museum), argued by some art historians to have been produced by Carracci as a preparatory for a lost or never-executed painting.
Q7824
Annibale Carracci
PER
Q205666
Hampton Court
LOC
Q1459037
Royal Collection
MEDIA
Q9439
Queen Victoria
PER
Q1361667
Roberto Longhi
PER
Q1612982
Hermann Voss
PER
Q1891
Bologna
LOC
Q316269
Agostino Carracci
PER
Q380553
Ludovico Carracci
PER
Q3783572
Fogg Art Museum
LOC
Q18170299
An Allegory of Truth and Time
Concept
1584-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1584
DATE
1584-01-01T00:00:00Z^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#dateTime
1584
DATE
-1585^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
-1585
NUMBER
+17^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
17
NUMBER
+18^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
18
NUMBER
+19^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
19
NUMBER
+20^^http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#decimal
20
NUMBER
creator
collection
inception
inception