Alegoría de la Fortuna

Salvator Rosa was a painter with a sideline in satire, and around 1658 in Rome he let the two mix dangerously. On the surface this is a picture of Fortune emptying her horn of plenty, gold and jewels and crowns tumbling out. But the riches are falling on pigs and donkeys who trample books and a painter's palette underfoot, and the donkey draped in a cardinal's red is the giveaway. Rosa meant it as a jab at Pope Alexander VII for lavishing favour on the undeserving while real artists went ignored. Friends warned him not to show it. When it appeared in public it caused an uproar that nearly got him jailed and excommunicated. He hid his own name in the picture, tucking a rose and his initials among the scattered objects.