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Combat between Reason and Passion, after Baccio Bandinelli
Combat between Reason and Passion, after Baccio Bandinelli

Combat between Reason and Passion, after Baccio Bandinelli

Primary (Thionville or Lunéville, France, 1507 or 1515–Rome, Italy, circa 1565)
NationalityFrench, Europe
Date1545
MediumEngraving
DimensionsSheet: 16 15/16 × 22 5/8 in. (43.1 × 57.5 cm)
Credit LineBlanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, The Leo Steinberg Collection, 2002.1656
Keywords
Collection AreaPrints and Drawings
Object number2002.1656
On View
Not on view
Label Text
Two male figures representing Passion, on the left, and Reason, on the right, shoot arrows at one another while the gods watch. According to their temperaments and associations, the groups can be identified as Passion on the left and Reason on the right. A female figure holding a flaming heart––possibly a personification of neo-Platonic love and the soul’s yearning to re-unite with the transcendental––is suspended between the two groups. This complex allegory was the last of Bandinelli’s three major designs for print.
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