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Parable of the Sower of Tares

Maker

(Artists)
1589-1624

Title

Parable of the Sower of Tares

Date of Production

1620 - 1621

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

Height: 60.4 cm (panel)
Width: 44.4 cm (panel)

Accession Number

P.1978.PG.121

Mode of Acquisition

Count Antoine Seilern, bequest, 1978

Credit

The Courtauld, London (Samuel Courtauld Trust)

Copyright

Work in the public domain

Location

Not currently on display

Keywords









Label Text

This is one of several paintings illustrating Christian parables, commissioned from Fetti by his Gonzaga patrons in Mantua. In the parables, comparison and analogy are used to demonstrate the nature of good and evil, as taught by Jesus in the Gospels.

While several peasants sleep, the Devil spreads bad seed in a field, sowing across the furrows instead of following them. This (the sowing of tares) stands for the spreading of heresy in the church.

Provenance

Princes Gate Bequest 1978

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