Pietro Liberi

Iseppo Zolio, Venice, by 1660.

S. Savini Branca, Il collezionismo veneziano nel '600, Florence 1965, p. 292;
M. Boschini, La carta del navegar pitoresco, Venice 1660, [ed. A. Pallucchini, Venice 1966], p. 531;
U. Ruggeri, Pietro e Marco Liberi pittori nella Venezia del Seicento, Rimini 1996, pp. 248, 289, cat. no. PP 283 (under section of unlocated works).  

The canvas has an old relining. The image reads well beneath a slightly discolored varnish. The painting retains detail in some areas, for example in the face and costume of the young boy, but in other areas, particularly in the darker shadows, the paint surface has lost some definition. A stretcher bar mark is faintly visible along upper and right edges, and a small area of raised surface is visible along the upper center of the right edge. Inspection under UV light reveals scattered retouching throughout, with more concentrated areas in the darks and the shadows, for example along the lower edge, in the lower right corner, in the shadows of the old man's face. Retouching also visible scattered in background, for example, to the right of the man's upheld hand, in areas to the right of the old man's head, and along the stretcher bar mark at lower right. Some of the old retouching has discolored slightly with time and could possibly be improved. Offered in an elaborately carved giltwood frame.
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In the Allegory of Good Counsel, a subject drawn from Cesar Ripa's Iconologia, the book symbolizes wisdom through study while the signum triceps—a Hellenistic figure with the heads of a dog, a lion, and a wolf all on one neck—symbolizes wisdom through the contemplation of the past, present, and future. Although depictions of this allegory also included a heart on a necklace to symbolize how wisdom grows from within, in this painting, Liberi has personalized his interpretation by including a child who tenderly rests his head on the loving heart of the older, wiser, man.