Getty Museum Opens 'Virtue and Vice' Exhibition Exploring Moral Allegory in European Drawings
The Getty Museum presents Virtue and Vice: Allegory in European Drawing, an exhibition of 16th- to 19th-century European drawings that use biblical, classical, mythological, and everyday subjects to convey moral instruction. Featured works include Jacob Matham’s Amorous Couple (about 1621), Cornelis Saftleven’s Enchanted Cellar with Animals (about 1655–70), Jacob Jordaens’s A Merry Company (about 1644), Cornelis Ketel’s Design for the central section of The Mirror of Virtue (about 1594), and Jacques de Gheyn II’s Allegory of Avarice (about 1609). The show is installed at the Getty Center and runs through June 7, 2026.
The Signal
The exhibition underscores how preparatory drawings served as vehicles for embedding ethical lessons in finished paintings, prints, and tapestries, particularly in 17th-century Dutch and Flemish scenes of vice. By foregrounding the interpretive labor required of viewers, the display illustrates a historical model of moral communication that relied on visual clues rather than explicit text, offering curators and collectors a framework for assessing didactic content in Old Master works on paper.
- Artists: Jacob Matham, Cornelis Saftleven, Jacob Jordaens, Cornelis Ketel, Jacques de Gheyn II
- Museums: Getty Museum
- Locations: Los Angeles
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