Enfilade

On view this spring at The Getty:

Virtue and Vice: Allegory in European Drawing

Getty Center, Los Angeles, 3 March — 7June 2026

This rotation from Getty’s collection explores how European artists from the 16th to 19th centuries made drawings to criticize bad behavior as well as praise virtuous deeds. Drawings of proper and improper conduct range from straightforward examples (charity, lust, and greed) to complex allegories (virtue, decadence, and friendship). Whether warning against sinful ways or celebrating how one should behave, drawings visualized moral codes, political ideologies, and social norms.

Image: Jacques de Gheyn II, Allegory of Avarice, ca. 1609, pen and brown ink, 18 × 13 cm (Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003.23).