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Lot Essay
Until the reappearance of this drawing, Testa's composition was only known from an engraving in reverse dated 1656 by François Collignon (1610-1687). There are only minor differences between the drawing and the print in which an hourglass has been added in front of the female figure and the landscape completed in the background.
As described by Baldinucci in his Notizie, the scene shows a figure of a youth favoured by Fortune saved from the hands of Time (with a sickle) and led to the temple of Eternity. A drawing in the Louvre shows a variation on the same theme (inv. no. 1912; A. Sutherland Harris and C. Lord, 'Pietro Testa and Parnassus', The Burlington Magazine, CXII, (January 1970), p. 20, note 39 and fig. 23).
As described by Baldinucci in his Notizie, the scene shows a figure of a youth favoured by Fortune saved from the hands of Time (with a sickle) and led to the temple of Eternity. A drawing in the Louvre shows a variation on the same theme (inv. no. 1912; A. Sutherland Harris and C. Lord, 'Pietro Testa and Parnassus', The Burlington Magazine, CXII, (January 1970), p. 20, note 39 and fig. 23).