CORNELIS VAN HAARLEM
(b. 1562, Haarlem, d. 1638, Haarlem)

Temperance

1600s
Oil on canvas, 95 x 142 cm
Schloss Sanssouci, Berlin

This allegory dedicated to Temperance shows a group of predominantly nude figures partying in a glade, personifications of the best of both worlds - Eros and Virtus. The painter obviously picked up many a trick from the suave School of Fontainebleau, where so many northern artists flourished in their association with sophisticated Italian and French colleagues.