An Allegory of Life and Death (study)

An Allegory of Life and Death (study)

© Ashmolean Museum

An Allegory of Life and Death (study)

Battista Franco

Art Funded: 1937
Dimensions: 20 cm
Presented by: Sir Kenneth Clark through The Art Fund

One of 5 drawings donated by Sir Kenneth Clark to the Ashmolean in 1937.

Kenneth Clark was Keeper of Fine Arts at the Ashmolean from 1931-33. He went on to become the youngest person to be appointed as director of the National Gallery where he remained until after the Second World War in 1945.

Art we’ve helped buy at Ashmolean Museum

The Bacon Cup

Acquired 2021

Portrait of a Woman

Acquired 2021

Untitled

Acquired 2019

Untitled

Acquired 2019

One Hundred Views of New Tokyo (Shin Tokyo Hyakkei )

Acquired 2020

Persian felt and applique hanging

Acquired 2018

High Street, Oxford

Acquired 2016

Watlington Hoard

Acquired 2016

Venice: the Fondamenta Nuove with the Lagoon and the Island of San Michele

Acquired 2014

An Allegory Of Joy And Melancholy

Acquired 2016

816 Late Byzantine coins

Acquired 2000

Young Woman with a Macaw

Acquired 1955

Young Love Birds

Acquired 1968

Wrestlers II

Acquired 2002

Windybrow bridge & Keswick and Ulleswater, looking towards Patterdale

Acquired 1922

Wilshere Collection

Acquired 2007

White Carrot

Acquired 2003

West Walton Church, Norfolk

Acquired 1923

Waiting outside Prof Tristram's room at the Royal College of Art

Acquired 1968

Vue de L'Entree du Jardin de la Tirelira

Acquired 1938

Virgin and Child

Acquired 1948

Virgin and Child

Acquired 1946

View over Flat Country

Acquired 1946

View on the Meuse

Acquired 1988

View of the Tiber Valley

Acquired 1992

View of the Piazzetta and Libreria

Acquired 1949

View of the Coliseum

Acquired 1926

View of St Mary's Abbey, York

Acquired 1923

View of Edinburgh from the West, near Craigleith Quarry

Acquired 1963

View of a village street

Acquired 1921

View of a seashore

Acquired 1935

View down the Tay near Half-way House between Dunkeld and Blair of Athol

Acquired 1963

Vesuvius and Somma from the Naples Mole

Acquired 1924

Untitled

Acquired 2010

Two Lovers in a Starlit Garden

Acquired 2002

Two Bozzetti of Apostles St Philip & St Matthew

Acquired 1965

Twenty Six Gold Boxes

Acquired 1948

Trott's Lane & A Rose

Acquired 1967

Trainerspotting

Acquired 2002

Torso of Vishnu

Acquired 2001

Tomb cloth

Acquired 2004

Time unveiling Truth

Acquired 2007

The Young Stonebreaker

Acquired 1997

The West Front of Castle Rising Church, Norfolk

Acquired 1922

The Waterfall

Acquired 1968

The Water Tower, York

Acquired 1953

The Vision of St Jerome

Acquired 2012_Mahon

The Virgin and Child with Angels

Acquired 1978

The Virgin and Child

Acquired 1948

The Virgin and Child

Acquired 1972

The Virgin and Child

Acquired 1942

The Vale of Dedham from Langham

Acquired 1929

The Triumph of Love

Acquired 2008

The Supper at Emmaus

Acquired 1988

The Spanish Fury

Acquired 1996

The Seamstress

Acquired 1988

The Royal Oak Inn

Acquired 1953

The Rissik Marshall Collection

Acquired 1958

The Rise of the Florentines against the Duke of Athens, 1343

Acquired 2007

The Resurrection of Christ

Acquired 1946

The Raising of the Cross

Acquired 1970

The Raising of Dorcas (Tabitha)

Acquired 1992

The Purveyor for the Embassy at Macao

Acquired 1963

The Prospect

Acquired 2005

The Painter Clément in Turkish Costume

Acquired 1976

The Oath of Semiramis

Acquired 2012_Mahon

The Nativity

Acquired 1953

The Mildmay monteith

Acquired 2000

The Marriage Contract

Acquired 1952

The Madonna of the Rosary with Saints

Acquired 1998

The Madonna and Child

Acquired 1932

The Little Nurse

Acquired 1972

The Journey to Emmaus

Acquired 1929

The Infant St John the Baptist

Acquired 1963

The Holy Family with St John the Baptist

Acquired 2012_Mahon

The Holderness Cross

Acquired 1999

The Gemma Tiberiana (Cameo of the Glorification of Germanicus)

Acquired 1990

The Game of Draughts

Acquired 1978

The Forest Fire

Acquired 1933

The Flowers of the Four Seasons

Acquired 1992

The Exposition of Moses

Acquired 1950

The Eve of Separation

Acquired 1929

The Entombment of Christ

Acquired 1997

The Early Ploughman & The Lonely Tower & Opening the Fold

Acquired 1929

The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

Acquired 1936

The Creation of Eve

Acquired 1961

The Costumes of China

Acquired 2003

The Coronation of Henri IV of France

Acquired 2002

The Choice of Hercules

Acquired 1980

The Castle of Sant'Angelo, Rome & The Temple of Bacchus, Rome

Acquired 1953

The Bull Fight

Acquired 1999

The Brickyard

Acquired 1968

The Birth of St John the Baptist

Acquired 1972

The Arundel Homerus

Acquired 1985

The Annoni-Visconti Marriage Bowl

Acquired 1997

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Acquired 1937

Thangka from Buryatia and Tsakli

Acquired 2009

Tankard

Acquired 2001

Swan Bowl, No.1

Acquired 2006

Summer

Acquired 2012_Mahon

Study of Two Hands holding a Cast of Drapery

Acquired 1937

Study of Trees & Plant Study

Acquired 1980

Study of Blossom

Acquired 1940

Study of a Monk

Acquired 1937

Study of a devout Spanish Girl

Acquired 2002

Study for the Consecration of a Church

Acquired 2000

Studio pottery

Acquired 2002

Still Life of Flowers and Vegetables

Acquired 1934

Still Life

Acquired 1980

Statuette of Blaise Pascal

Acquired 1986

Statue of an Athenian lady

Acquired 1917

Statue of a nude youth

Acquired 1976

Standing Figure of Vishnu

Acquired 1996

Stamping Coinage in the Mint, Calcutta

Acquired 1980

Spring

Acquired 2012_Mahon

Sparrows and Fruiting Tree

Acquired 2000

Some Old Master drawings

Acquired 1940

Small Naked Portrait

Acquired 1989

Skye

Acquired 2002

Sketchbook - 'Drawings of B.W. 1928-1930 and S.M.'s Hands'

Acquired 2003

Sketch for a ceiling decoration

Acquired 1933

Silver cup

Acquired 2002

Silver bowl

Acquired 1964

Siena

Acquired 2008

Shipping in a Breeze

Acquired 2002

Sheet of figure studies

Acquired 2002

Sheba and Solomon

Acquired 2001

Shallow bowl

Acquired 2003

Self Portrait

Acquired 1997

Selection of 11 drawings

Acquired 1940

Seated Shepherd with Cows and Sheep in a Landscape

Acquired 2004

Seascape - 'Sailing ships entering a Harbour'

Acquired 1935

Ruins in the Alban Hills

Acquired 2003

Ruins and figures

Acquired 1929

Rosamund and the Purple Jar (study)

Acquired 1937

Rome seen through an arch of the Colosseum

Acquired 1997

Roman relief portrait

Acquired 1966

Rococo watch and case

Acquired 1988

Road to Emmaus (studies) & The Woman of Samaria

Acquired 1937

Richmond, Yorkshire & The Fishing Fleet

Acquired 1931

Reclining woman with child

Acquired 1989

Ramparts of Montreuil

Acquired 1949

Ram from the Tirhaqa Temple, Kawa

Acquired 1931

Pumas

Acquired 1968

Proctor-Mosley ewer & basin

Acquired 2005

Portrait of William Fermor

Acquired 1978

Portrait of Thomas Balston

Acquired 1968

Portrait of the Earl of Arundel

Acquired 1993

Portrait of the Artist

Acquired 1955

Portrait of Soldan Lawrence (verso: Girl's Head)

Acquired 2002

Portrait of Sir Dudley Carleton

Acquired 2003

Portrait of Sir Charles Frederick

Acquired 1980

Portrait of Osbert Sitwell

Acquired 1968

Portrait of Mary Thomas, the Artist's Second Wife

Acquired 1979

Portrait of Mary Ellen Meredith

Acquired 2003

Portrait of Maggi Hambling

Acquired 2002

Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus

Acquired 2012

Portrait of Lady Holland

Acquired 2003

Portrait of John Guise

Acquired 1981

Portrait of Giacomo Doria

Acquired 2000

Portrait of George Drummond

Acquired 1955

Portrait of Francis Douce

Acquired 1999

Portrait of Francis Bacon

Acquired 2002

Portrait of Francesco Mignarelli

Acquired 1943

Portrait of Charles Robert Cockerell

Acquired 1998

Portrait of an Elderly Man, aged 70

Acquired 1979

Portrait of Alexandre Forest

Acquired 1936

Portrait of a Young Woman, thought to be Rosa Spisani

Acquired 1981

Portrait of a Young Man holding a Skull

Acquired 1946

Portrait of a Young Man

Acquired 1983

Portrait of a Sculptor

Acquired 1952

Portrait of a Sculptor

Acquired 1952

Portrait of a Lady wearing a black Mantilla

Acquired 1935

Porcelain Tray

Acquired 2015

Poor Folk & Studies of Dorelia with a baby and child

Acquired 1968

Ponte d'Agosto, Rimini

Acquired 1931

Pharmacy jar

Acquired 1999

Perfume burner

Acquired 2003

Pendant-seal: Winter/Garden Nymph protecting a flower

Acquired 2002

Peggy Jean

Acquired 1945

Paysage avec Pont, allee d'un Jardin

Acquired 1989

Paul loses his Hat

Acquired 1968

Pastoral with a Horse-Chestnut Tree

Acquired 1929

Pair of six-fold screens: Flowers of the Four Seasons

Acquired 1970

Pair of six-fold screens

Acquired 1979

Pair of gold hair ornaments

Acquired 1974

Pair of folding screens: Flowers of the Twelve Months

Acquired 2004

Painting of a Bishop-Saint

Acquired 1985

Ottoman velvet textile

Acquired 2001

Ottoman candlestick

Acquired 1991

Old Chelsea's Last Regatta

Acquired 1968

Notes, too

Acquired 2007

Noli ne tangere

Acquired 2012_Mahon

Near Richmond, Yorkshire

Acquired 1949

Near Bettws y Coed

Acquired 1963

Nature morte aux Sculptures en Porcelain

Acquired 1989

Mythological Landscape with Nymphs and Satyrs

Acquired 2012_Mahon

Moving Visions Series no. 83 and Moving Visions 140919

Acquired 2016

Montfermeil, le Ruisseau sous Bois

Acquired 1989

Meiji vase with design of birds and flowers

Acquired 2010

Marriage of Antiochus and Stratonice

Acquired 1946

Marble altar

Acquired 1992

Maiolica plate

Acquired 1992

Maiolica jug

Acquired 2004

Maiolica dish: The Departure of Ceyx

Acquired 2006

Maiolica dish

Acquired 1996

Maiolica Basin

Acquired 2001

Maidens Pier, Ayrshire

Acquired 1935

Maharaja Pratap Singh of Sawar on a Horse

Acquired 1993

Magdalen College and High Street, Oxford

Acquired 1923

Macao; a Ruin with Cows

Acquired 2002

Looking West from Martigues

Acquired 1935

Little Moor Farm

Acquired 1968

Limehouse Basin

Acquired 2002

Lid of a Cordovan ivory box

Acquired 1987

Letters from Burne-Jones to May and Daphne Gaskell. 1) Album of letter from EB-J to Mrs Gaskell, 2) Album of letters from EB-J to Mrs Gaskell I 3) Album of letters from EB-J to Mrs Gaskell II, 4) Album of illustrated letters from EB-J to Mrs Gaskell, 5) D

Acquired 2015

Landscape with Repose of the Holy Family

Acquired 1932

Landscape with Figures outside Alkmaar

Acquired 1989

Landscape with a river

Acquired 1925

Landscape with a Horseman and Two Soldiers

Acquired 1987

Landscape with a figure

Acquired 1989

Landscape near Muiderberg

Acquired 1955

Landscape in Wales & Mountainous River Landscape in Wales

Acquired 1939

Landscape in the Roman Campagna

Acquired 2012_Mahon

Landscape in the Roman Campagna

Acquired 2012_Mahon

Landscape

Acquired 1932

Lake Piediluco, Umbria

Acquired 1931

Lacquer writing set

Acquired 2007

La Division de Place & Diversion de Espana

Acquired 1934

Jug with grotesque decoration

Acquired 2008

Joseph Priestley

Acquired 1989

Jewelled brooch

Acquired 1972

Japanese lacquer cabinet in Namban style

Acquired 1998

Israelites gathering Manna

Acquired 1920

Interior of East End of Norwich Cathedral & Ashtead Churchyard

Acquired 1929

Intaglio of Isis and Serapis

Acquired 2009

Imari porcelain

Acquired 2011

Illustrations to the 'Divine Comedy' by Dante

Acquired 1919

Ideal Head

Acquired 1996

House near the Estuary of a River

Acquired 1943

Horatius Cocles defending the Bridge

Acquired 2012_Mahon

Head of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius

Acquired 2011

Head of Noneen (Head of a Girl)

Acquired 1968

Head of an Old Man

Acquired 2012_Mahon

Head of a Woman in a Whimple Head-Dress

Acquired 1972

Head of a Boy

Acquired 1968

Hawk on a Perch

Acquired 2005

Hampstead Heath

Acquired 1968

Group of works on paper

Acquired 1997

Greystone

Acquired 2001

Greenwich Park and the River

Acquired 1963

Grange Bridge, Borrowdale, Cumberland

Acquired 1936

Grain tower

Acquired 2007

Gold pendant

Acquired 1950

Glass plate with a view of SS Giovanni e Paolo, Venice

Acquired 1997

Girls dressing

Acquired 1947

Girl with a Hoe

Acquired 1988

Girl Feeding Chickens

Acquired 1988

Gilbert Cannan at his Mill

Acquired 1968

Four albums of drawings

Acquired 2006

Four Album Leaves

Acquired 1980

Figure of Standing Parvati

Acquired 1988

Farmyard at Princes Risborough

Acquired 1929

Ewer & basin

Acquired 1974

Etna from Taormina; Dawn & Boston Stump; Sunset

Acquired 1929

Engraved dish

Acquired 1994

Embroidered Islamic tunic

Acquired 1998

Embroidered hanging: Musical Party in an Exotic Setting

Acquired 1991

Eight prints 1936-74

Acquired 2015

Early Medieval gold and garnet sword button

Acquired 2012

Drawing of two cupids

Acquired 1942

Drawing of three figures

Acquired 1940

Design for an ornamental border

Acquired 1992

Design for an engraved antique gem in an ornamental setting

Acquired 2014

Design for All Souls Chapel

Acquired 2002

Design for a monument to Pope Clement XI

Acquired 2003

Death and the Girl (maiden)

Acquired 1947

Dead Christ supported by an Angel

Acquired 1958

Crucifixion, with the Virgin and Saint John

Acquired 2011

Cows at Cookham

Acquired 1968

Collision of Particles

Acquired 2009

Collection of twenty-five drawings

Acquired 1970

Collection of silver plate

Acquired 1947

Collection of silver

Acquired 1946

Collection of prints

Acquired 1946

Collection of Portrait Engravings

Acquired 1951

Collection of miniature cups, teabowls and saucers

Acquired 2009

Collection of gold boxes

Acquired 1960

Collection of furniture

Acquired 1967

Collection of drawings, prints and sketchbooks

Acquired 2009

Collection of drawings

Acquired 1943

Collection of British Studio Pottery

Acquired 2004

Collection of 82 prints and 33 sketchbooks

Acquired 1995

Collection of 6 Indian sculptures and a painting

Acquired 1961

Collection of 18 Japanese wooden, bronze and ceramic decorative objects

Acquired 2016

Collection of 14 coins

Acquired 1988

Coast Scene with Fisherfolk gathering Seaweed

Acquired 1988

Christian descending into the Valley of Humiliation

Acquired 1929

Christ Church College, Oxford

Acquired 2002

Christ Carrying the Cross

Acquired 1955

Christ and the Woman of Samaria

Acquired 1986

Chintz hanging from the Coromandel Coast

Acquired 2008

Chinese ritual vessel

Acquired 1996

Chalgrove II Hoard

Acquired 2004

Ceiling Sketch for Mannheim Castle

Acquired 1938

Cattle and Haystack, Twilight & Essex Fields

Acquired 1929

Catching the Steamer

Acquired 1947

Castle Crag, Derwentwater

Acquired 1923

Capriccio Landscape with Figures, a Bridge over a Stream

Acquired 1989

Calm Contortion Wine Cooler

Acquired 2010

Caitya sculpture

Acquired 1999

Bust of Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel

Acquired 1987

Bust of Marie de Medicis

Acquired 2000

Bust of Edward Salter, aged six

Acquired 1999

Bust of a Cardinal

Acquired 1959

Bramerton Hills near Norwich

Acquired 1927

Bouquet de Roses dans un Vase

Acquired 1989

Boswood's Thigh and the Right Arm of Michelangelo's David

Acquired 2002

Boar's Head Tureen

Acquired 2006

Berck, Cloudy Landscape

Acquired 1989

Bell salt

Acquired 2005

Basin with the arms of Spannocchi

Acquired 2004

Attendant bodhisattva

Acquired 1999

Assyrian relief

Acquired 1933

Apples in a Bag

Acquired 1968

Animals and birds in a landscape

Acquired 1953

Anglo-Saxon bowl

Acquired 1977

Angelica encountering the wounded Medoro

Acquired 2012_Mahon

An Exhibition at the Old Town Hall, Oxford

Acquired 2004

An Allegory of Life and Death (study)

Acquired 1937

An Allegory of Justice and Vanity

Acquired 1939

Album of portrait drawings

Acquired 1992

Album of drawings

Acquired 2002

Abraham and Hagar Surprised by Sarah

Acquired 1997

A Wooded Valley, Painswick & Old Water Mill, Bridgenorth

Acquired 1931

A View of Southampton water

Acquired 1963

A view of Golding, Constable's House at East Bergholt

Acquired 1925

A View of Culzean Castle, Ayshire

Acquired 1963

A Study of Henry Irving as Becket

Acquired 1968

A Seated Bodhisattva

Acquired 1983

A Ruined House

Acquired 1931

A Portrait of Mrs Fuseli

Acquired 1938

A November Rainbow, Dolwyddalen Valley; November 11th, 1866, 1pm

Acquired 1922

A Mourning Knight

Acquired 1964

A Man leading a Horse

Acquired 1937

A Highland Scene - 'In Connernara'

Acquired 1935

A Head of a Woman

Acquired 1981

A Farmyard with a Well

Acquired 1939

A collection of Japanese metalwork sword fittings

Acquired 1997

A Beach Scene with Fisherfolk

Acquired 1963

9th century seated Buddha

Acquired 1997

21 pieces of Meiji ceramics

Acquired 2014

10 landscape drawings

Acquired 1925

1) Two studies of a Nymph (ceiling figure); 2) Head of a Cherub

Acquired 2009

1) Qing Bai shallow dish; 2) Fujian ware bowl; 3) Qing Bai small footed cup

Acquired 2010

1) Figure on horseback; 2) Delacroix letter

Acquired 2008

1) Coastal scene with coach and retinue; 2) Coastal scene with ship aground

Acquired 2009

1) Coast Scene; 2) Scene on a Rocky Coast

Acquired 1931

Nominally inspired by Lucretius' De rerum natura, Piero di Cosimo's The Forest Fire takes its scientific subject and embellishes it with fantastical creatures from the artist's imagination: Bulls, bears, lions and deer-like creatures with human faces all flee wearily from a fire.

Rubens' portrait of Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel dates from about 1629. The Earl was a great collector, and Rubens had painted the earl's wife a few years earlier on a visit to Antwerp. This drawing in pen and ink with a chalk base is unusually informal, reflecting perhaps the comfortable relationship between artist and patron.