The Cleveland Museum of Art
Collection Online as of December 21, 2025
Theology (from the Tarocchi, series C: Liberal Arts, #30)
before 1467
Location: Not on view
Description
This engraving is part of the group “C” named Liberal Arts. Conceptually, the liberal arts descended from classical antiquity, and were divided into the Trivium (Grammar, Rhetoric, and Dialectic or Logic) and the Quadrivium (Music, Geometry, Arithmetic, and Astronomy). In the Tarocchi set the total number was risen to ten, with the addition of the three disciplines (Poetry, Philosophy, and Theology). The liberal arts denoted knowledge or skills considered necessary to participate in a free society. By the late Middle Ages, they began to be represented in the visual arts as womanlike allegories.Here, Theologia (Theology) is personified as a half-length pregnant female figure in profile. A bearded visage of an old man is placed on the back of the graceful woman’s head. These two profiles embody the ability to observe the heavens and to look at the earth, respectively. Theology is set on her attribute—a starry sphere—which epitomizes the study of celestial things.
- Prints and Drawings from the Cleveland Museum of Art Collection. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (May 6-September 9, 1965).
- {{cite web|title=Theology (from the Tarocchi, series C: Liberal Arts, #30)|url=false|author=Master of the E-Series Tarocchi|year=before 1467|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}
Source URL:
https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.432.30