Tintoretto, Jacopo (1518-1594)
La Disciplina che tiene a freno i costumi, già Allegoria della Fortuna (Allegory of Fortune)
1544–1545
Oil on canvas, 105 x 144 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milano
Attributed at various times to Andrea Schiavone and Tintoretto, it is now dated to the latter’s early work, around 1544/1545. The work can be identified with one of the lunettes that decorated the first room of the seat of the Magistratura sopra i Conti in Venice. The title, already in the Napoleonic inventory, describes the work as “Allegory – said to represent the discipline that regulates morals.” The ancient title (Discipline that reins in morals) could therefore suggest a moral interpretation: the central figure could in fact be Discipline who, with gifts (the crown and tiara) and the whip, rewards the virtuous and punishes the vicious. She crushes the figure of an old woman, with an evidently negative meaning, perhaps a personification of Envy, one of the Deadly Sins, reclining on a dolphin, which usually symbolizes Favor, the exact opposite of Envy, demonstrating a moral balance that acts as a regulator. (Brera)