A Sebastiano Conca acquired by Draguignan

11/7/26 - Acquisition - Draguignan, Musée des Beaux-Arts - Seated and shown half-length within an oval format, a winged female figure, crowned with laurels and dressed in white muslin and mauve silk, raises her eyes to Heaven. Beside her stands a putto holding his right index finger to his lips while extending a snail with his left arm. The woman holds a dove in her right hand and, with the other, brandishes a bridle above the cherub’s head. An attribute that leaves no doubt as to her identification: Temperance. One of the four cardinal virtues, together with Prudence, Justice and Fortitude. The dove and the bridle symbolise the mastery of instincts through reason or, as Cesare Ripa described it in his Iconologia, the “moder[ation] [of] ‘unruly passions’”.