Terms and conditions of use
I find delight only in learning
(Altro diletto chimparar non trove)
(1645-1650)
Medium
etching on grey paper on paper
Measurements
39.0 × 52.2 cm (image and sheet, trimmed within platemark)
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1961
Gallery location
16th & 17th Century Gallery - Painting and Sculpture
Mezzanine linked to Level 1, NGV International
About this work
The inscription on the shield in the foreground – ‘Altro diletto chímparar non trovo’ (‘I find delight only in learning’) – provides the key to this sophisticated allegory about artistic achievement versus sensual pleasure. The phrase, from Petrarch’s Triumph of Love, became something of a personal motto for Testa, who here casts the heroic young artist as a philosopher-painter. Standing beneath a bust of Minerva, Goddess of Wisdom, the artist turns his back on the bacchic activities pictured in the background, embracing only learning and his craft. The influence of Annibale Carracci’s Farnese frescoes in Rome is evident in this and other late etchings by Testa.
Artwork Details
Place/s of Execution
Rome, Italy
Catalogue/s Raisonné
Bartsch 32 i/iii; Bellini 34 i/iii
Edition
1st of 3 states
Inscription
printed in ink (in image) l.l.: PT (monogram). Pinx. Et Sculp.
Accession Number
860-5
Departments
International Prints / International Prints and Drawings
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of the Joe White Bequest
Subjects (general)
Allegory and Symbols Human Figures Religion and Mythology
Subjects (specific)
Bacchus (Roman deity) drunkenness philosophers Priapus (Greek deity) revellers revelries sensuality temperance
Movements
Baroque