| Filippo Parodi’s "Allegory of Vice", inspired by Bernini’s "anima dannata" shows a man bound at the chest and arms, writhing in his chains and shouting loudly. Parodi takes Bernini’s allegory further and sets the figure in a narrative context. The figure represents the giant Tityus, the traditional personification of vice punished. According to Homer (Odyssey 11, 576 ff.), Tityus, a son of Zeus, assaulted the goddess Leto, and was hunted down by her children Apollo and Artemis. After his death, he had to atone for his crime in the underworld: he was chained to the ground while a pair of vultures tore at his liver that always grew back. Parodi’s sculpture casts a spell on the viewer with its realistic portrayal of tormented suffering. With his face distorted with pain, his mouth open wide and tearing at his hair, Tityus rages against his fate. He becomes a symbol of lack of selfcontrol, kept in check only by chains. The plinth takes on the function of a pillory, giving the impression that vice is quite literally being pilloried here. |
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Marble
height 77 cm
Inv.-No. SK11
Provenance: commissioned with the Allegory of Virtue (SK 15) by Prince Johann Adam Andreas I von Liechtenstein
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| Further works on display |
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