François Lemoyne (1688 – 4 June 1737),Time Saving Truth from Falsehood and Envy, 1737, Oil on canvas, c. 180.5 x 148 cm, The Wallace Collection, London
This painting is the artist’s final masterwork and a poignant testament to his artistic legacy.
He was a Rococo visionary who built on the refinement of the Italian Renaissance and the boldness of Baroque art to shape a new, elegant style.While Rococo often embraced lighter, playful tones, Lemoyne’s work retained the depth and complexity of its predecessors.
The artist, whose extraordinary achievements in decorating Versailles earned him the title of First Painter to King Louis XV in 1736, was remarkably versatile. He created large-scale, multi-figure ceilings for royalty and a sophisticated allegorical series of paintings for private collectors.
On 4 June 1737, he completed this final painting for his long-term patron and collector, François Berger. Tragically, the next day, Lemoyne took his own life by stabbing himself in his Paris studio.
Lemoyne employs classical allegorical figures in this painting to convey a narrative of virtue’s triumph over vice. Time is personified as an elderly, winged figure, a depiction rooted in Renaissance iconography, notably influenced by Vincenzo Cartari’s ‘Le imagini degli Dei de gli antichi ‘(1556), which describes Time rescuing Truth from a cave. This imagery underscores the revelation of truth over time. Truth, depicted as a nude female figure, symbolises purity and enlightenment. The nudity of Truth is a traditional motif representing transparency and unblemished virtue. Falsehood, adorned with a mask, signifies deceit and the concealment of reality, while Envy, often portrayed as consuming itself, embodies destructive jealousy. The interactions among these figures highlight the moral that truth, aided by time, will ultimately prevail over deceit and envy.
