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{{Short description|Literary device}}
{{For|the concept in mathematics|Allegory (mathematics)}}
[[File:Pearl Poet.jpg|thumb|''Pearl'', miniature from [[Pearl Manuscript|Cotton Nero A.x]]. The dreamer stands on the other side of the stream from the Pearl-maiden. [[Pearl (poem)|''Pearl'']] is one of the greatest allegories from the [[High Middle Ages]].<ref name="barney">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=1989 |title=Allegory |encyclopedia=[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]] |last=Barney |first=Stephen A. |volume=1 |isbn=0-684-16760-3}}</ref>]]
As a [[List of narrative techniques|literary device]] or artistic form, an '''allegory''' is a [[wikt:narrative|narrative]] or visual representation in which a character, place, or event can be interpreted to represent a meaning with moral or political significance. Authors have used allegory throughout history in all forms of art to illustrate or convey complex ideas and concepts in ways that are comprehensible or striking to its viewers, readers, or listeners.

Writers and speakers typically use allegories to convey (semi-) hidden or complex meanings through [[symbolism (arts)|symbolic]] figures, actions, imagery, or events, which together create the moral, spiritual, or political meaning the author wishes to convey.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://web.cn.edu/kwheeler/lit_terms_A.html |title= Literary Terms and Definitions: A |work=Literary Vocabulary |publisher=Carson-Newman University |last=Wheeler |first=L. Kip |date=11 January 2018 | access-date=May 19, 2020}}</ref> Many allegories use [[personification]] of abstract concepts.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Tran|first1=Thanh Tu|title=Flying Beyond Didacticism: The Creative Environmental Vision of 'Wild Wise Weird'|date=2025|publisher=Young Voices of Science|url=https://youngvoicesofscience.org/?p=1963}}</ref>

==Etymology==
[[File:Salvator Rosa (Italian) - Allegory of Fortune - Google Art Project.jpg|thumbnail| [[Salvator Rosa]]: ''[[Allegory of Fortune]]'', representing [[Fortuna]], the goddess of luck, with the [[Cornucopia|horn of plenty]]]]

[[File:Pedro I of Brazil and Charles Stuart .jpg|thumb|Allegory of the recognition of the [[Empire of Brazil]] and [[Independence of Brazil|its independence]]. The painting depicts British diplomat [[Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay|Sir Charles Stuart]] presenting his [[letter of credence]] to Emperor [[Pedro I of Brazil]], who is flanked by his wife [[Maria Leopoldina of Austria|Maria Leopoldina]], their daughter Maria da Glória (later Queen of Portugal as [[Maria II of Portugal|Maria II]]), and other dignitaries. At right, a winged figure, representing [[History]], carving the "great event" on a stone tablet.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Schwarcz |first1=Lilia Moritz |author-link=Lilia Moritz Schwarcz |title=As barbas do imperador: D. Pedro II, um monarca nos trópicos |title-link=As Barbas do Imperador |date=1998 |publisher=Companhia das Letras |isbn=85-7164-837-9 |location=São Paulo |publication-place=Brazil |pages=181 |language=Portuguese |trans-title=The Emperor's Beard: Dom Pedro II and His Tropical Monarchy |oclc=948105598}}</ref>]]

[[File:Marco Marcola - Mitološka alegorija.jpg|thumb| [[Marco Marcola]]: Mythological allegory]]

First attested in English in 1382, the word ''allegory'' comes from [[Latin]] ''allegoria'', the [[latinisation (literature)|latinisation]] of the [[Greek language|Greek]] ἀλληγορία (''allegoría''), "veiled language, figurative",<ref>{{LSJ|a)llhgori/a|ἀλληγορία|ref}}</ref> literally "speaking about something else",<ref>{{Cite web |title=Etymology of allegory |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/allegory |access-date=2024-07-04 |website=etymonline |language=en}}</ref> which in turn comes from ἄλλος (''allos''), "another, different"<ref>{{LSJ|a)/llos1|ἄλλος|ref}}</ref> and ἀγορεύω (''agoreuo''), "to harangue, to speak in the assembly",<ref>{{LSJ|a)goreu/w|ἀγορεύω|ref}}</ref> which originates from ἀγορά (''agora''), "assembly".<ref>{{LSJ|a)gora/|ἀγορά|ref}}</ref>

==Types==

[[Northrop Frye]] discussed what he termed a "continuum of allegory", a spectrum that ranges from what he termed the "naive allegory" of the likes of ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'', to the more private allegories of modern [[paradox (literature)|paradox literature]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frye |first1=Northrop |author-link1=Northrop Frye |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0Na_DwAAQBAJ |title=Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=9780691202563 |editor1-last=Damrosch |editor1-first=David |editor1-link=David Damrosch |series=Princeton Classics |volume=70 |location=Princeton, New Jersey |publication-date=2020 |pages=89ff |chapter=Second Essay: Ethical Criticism: Theory of Symbols |orig-date=1st Pub. 1957}}</ref>
In this perspective, the characters in a "naive" allegory are not fully three-dimensional, for each aspect of their individual personalities and of the events that befall them embodies some moral quality or other abstraction; the author has selected the allegory first, and the details merely flesh it out.

==Classical allegory==

The origins of allegory can be traced at least back to [[Homer]] in his "quasi-allegorical" use of personifications of, e.g., Terror (Deimos) and Fear (Phobos) at Il. 115 f.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Small |first=Stuart G. P. |date=1949 |title=On Allegory in Homer |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/3293505 |journal=The Classical Journal |volume=44 |issue=7 |pages=423–430 |issn=0009-8353}}</ref> The title of "first allegorist", however, is usually awarded to whoever was the earliest to put forth allegorical interpretations of Homer.  This approach leads to two possible answers: [[Theagenes of Rhegium]] (whom [[Porphyry of Tyre|Porphyry]] calls the "first allegorist," Porph. Quaest. Hom. 1.240.14–241.12 Schrad.) or [[Pherecydes of Syros]], both of whom are presumed to be active in the 6th century B.C.E., though Pherecydes is earlier and is often presumed to be the first writer of prose.  The debate is complex, since it demands that we observe the distinction between two often conflated uses of the Greek verb "allēgoreīn," which can mean both "to speak allegorically" and "to interpret allegorically."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Domaradzki |first=Mikolaj |date=2017 |title=The Beginnings of Greek Allegoresis |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44509198 |journal=The Classical World |volume=110 |issue=3 |pages=299–321 |issn=0009-8418}}</ref>

In the case of "interpreting allegorically," Theagenes appears to be our earliest example.  Presumably in response to proto-philosophical moral critiques of Homer (e.g., Xenophanes fr. 11 Diels-Kranz<ref name="Diels1951">{{Cite book |last=Diels |first=Hermann |title=Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker. |title-link=Hermann Alexander Diels#Die Fragmente der Vorsokratiker |last2=Kranz |first2=Walther |date=1960 |publisher=weidmann |edition=6th |volume=1 |publication-place=Berlin}}</ref>{{rp|page=126–138}}), Theagenes proposed symbolic interpretations whereby the Gods of the Iliad actually stood for physical elements.  So, Hephestus represents Fire, for instance (for which see fr. A2 in Diels-Kranz{{r |Diels1951 |pages=51–52}}).  Some scholars, however, argue that Pherecydes cosmogonic writings anticipated Theagenes allegorical work, illustrated especially by his early placement of Time (Chronos) in his genealogy of the gods, which is thought to be a reinterpretation of the titan Kronos, from more traditional genealogies.

In classical literature two of the best-known allegories are [[Allegory of the Cave|the Cave]] in Plato's ''[[Republic (Plato)|The Republic]]'' (Book VII) and the story of the stomach and its members in the speech of Menenius Agrippa ([[Livy]] ii. 32).

Among the best-known examples of allegory, [[Plato]]'s [[Allegory of the Cave]], forms a part of his larger work ''[[The Republic (Plato)|The Republic]].'' In this allegory, Plato describes a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall (514a–b). The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows, using language to identify their world (514c–515a). According to the allegory, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to viewing reality, until one of them finds his way into the outside world where he sees the actual objects that produced the shadows. He tries to tell the people in the cave of his discovery, but they do not believe him and vehemently resist his efforts to free them so they can see for themselves (516e–518a). This allegory is, on a basic level, about a philosopher who, upon finding greater knowledge outside the cave of human understanding, seeks to share it as is his duty, and the foolishness of those who would ignore him because they think themselves educated enough.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Elliott |first=R. K. |date=1967 |title=Socrates and Plato's Cave |journal=Kant-Studien |volume=58 |issue=2 |page=138 |doi=10.1515/kant.1967.58.1-4.137 |s2cid=170201374}}</ref>

In Late Antiquity [[Martianus Capella]] organized all the information a fifth-century upper-class male needed to know into an allegory of the wedding of Mercury and ''Philologia'', with the seven [[liberal arts]] the young man needed to know as guests.<ref>{{cite book |title=Martianus Capella and the Seven Liberal Arts – The Marriage of Philology and Mercury |date=1977 |publisher=Columbia University Press |edition=Print |volume=II |location=New York |translator-last1=Stahl |translator-first1=William Harris |translator-last2=Johnson |translator-first2=Richard |translator-last3=Burge |translator-first3=E.L.}}</ref> Also, the Neoplatonic philosophy developed a type of allegorical reading of Homer<ref>{{Cite book |last=Lamberton |first=Robert |title=Homer the Theologian: Neoplatonist Allegorical Reading and the Growth of the Epic Tradition |date=1986 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=9780520066076 |jstor=10.1525/j.ctt1ppp1k}}</ref> and Plato.<ref name=":0">{{Citation |last=Calian |first=Florin George |title='Clarifications' of Obscurity: Proclus' Allegorical Reading of Plato's Parmenides |date=2013 |work=Medium Aevum Quotidianum |pages=15–31 |editor-last=Dolealová |editor-first=Lucie |editor-last2=Rider |editor-first2=Jeff |editor-last3=Zironi |editor-first3=Alessandro |url=https://philpapers.org/rec/CALCOO |access-date=2019-11-06 |publisher=Krems: Institut für Realienkunde des Mittelalters und der frühen Neuzeit}}</ref> As scholars of allegory point out, ”the literal reading of a text has its counter-part in allegorical interpretation. This way of reading, which must have started with the first readers of  Homer and found a fertile ground in [[Philo]]'s allegorical commentaries on the Bible, was amazingly natural for [[Proclus]], whose writings and commentaries represent the last phases of late antique philosophy, and particularly of the relation between philosophy and rhetoric.”<ref name=":0" />

==Biblical allegory==
Other early allegories are found in the [[Hebrew Bible]], such as the extended metaphor in [[Psalm 80]] of the [[Grapevine|vine]] and its impressive spread and growth, representing Israel's conquest and population of the Promised Land.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kennedy | first=George A. |date=1999 |title=Classical Rhetoric and Its Christian and Secular Tradition from Ancient to Modern Times |edition=2nd |publisher=UNC Press |page=142 |isbn=0-8078-4769-0 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=LHHYx4idyPEC&pg=PA142 |access-date=7 August 2009}}</ref> Also allegorical is [[Ezekiel]] 16 and 17, wherein the capture of that same vine by the mighty Eagle represents Israel's exile to Babylon.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Jones |editor-first=Alexander |date=1968 |title=The Jerusalem Bible |edition=Reader's |publisher=Doubleday & Company |pages=[https://archive.org/details/jerusalembiblere00gard/page/1186 1186, 1189] |isbn=0-385-01156-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/jerusalembiblere00gard/page/1186 }}</ref>

[[Hermeneutics#Allegorical|Allegorical interpretation of the Bible]] was a common early Christian practice and continues. For example, the recently re-discovered Fourth Commentary on the Gospels by [[Fortunatianus of Aquileia]] has a comment by its English translator: "The principal characteristic of Fortunatianus' exegesis is a figurative approach, relying on a set of concepts associated with key terms in order to create an allegorical decoding of the text."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Fortunatianus Aquileiensis |url=https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/books/9783110516371/9783110516371-003/9783110516371-003.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.degruyter.com/downloadpdf/books/9783110516371/9783110516371-003/9783110516371-003.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Commentary on the Gospels: English translation and introduction |year=2017 |publisher=De Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-051637-1 |doi=10.1515/9783110516371 |page=XIX}}</ref>

==Medieval allegory==
{{see also|Four senses of Scripture}}
[[File:British School 17th century - Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield - Google Art Project.jpg|thumbnail| [[English art|British School]] 17th century – ''Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield''. Sometimes the meaning of an allegory can be lost, even if art historians suspect that the artwork is an allegory of some kind.<ref>{{cite web |title=Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield by English School |url=http://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/6393/portrait-of-a-lady-called-elizabeth-lady-tanfield-english-school |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150216182507/http://www.artfund.org/supporting-museums/art-weve-helped-buy/artwork/6393/portrait-of-a-lady-called-elizabeth-lady-tanfield-english-school |archive-date=16 February 2015 |access-date=9 May 2026 |publisher=Art Fund}}</ref>]]
Allegory has an ability to freeze the temporality of a story, while infusing it with a spiritual context. Medieval thinking accepted allegory as having a ''reality'' underlying any rhetorical or fictional uses. The allegory was as true as the facts of surface appearances. Thus, the Papal Bull ''[[Unam Sanctam]]'' (1302) presents themes of the unity of [[Christendom]] with the pope as its head in which the allegorical details of the metaphors are adduced as facts on which is based a demonstration with the vocabulary of logic: "''Therefore'' of this one and only Church there is one body and one head—not two heads as if it were a monster... If, then, the Greeks or others say that they were not committed to the care of Peter and his successors, they ''necessarily'' confess that they are not of the sheep of Christ." This text also demonstrates the frequent use of allegory in religious texts during the Medieval Period, following the tradition and example of the Bible.

In the late 15th century, the enigmatic ''[[Hypnerotomachia]]'', with its elaborate woodcut illustrations, shows the influence of themed pageants and [[masque]]s on contemporary allegorical representation, as [[Renaissance humanism|humanist dialectic]] conveyed them.

The denial of medieval allegory as found in the 12th-century works of [[Hugh of St Victor]] and [[Edward Topsell]]'s ''Historie of Foure-footed Beastes'' (London, 1607, 1653) and its replacement in the study of nature with methods of categorisation and mathematics by such figures as naturalist [[John Ray]] and the astronomer [[Galileo]] is thought to mark the beginnings of early modern science.<ref>{{cite book |last=Harrison |first=Peter |author-link=Peter Harrison (historian) |url=https://archive.org/details/bibleprotestanti00harr |title=The Bible, Protestantism, and the Rise of Natural Science |date=2001 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=0-521-59196-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/bibleprotestanti00harr/page/n13 1]–10 |chapter=Introduction |url-access=limited}}</ref>

==Modern allegory==

Since meaningful stories are nearly always applicable to larger issues, allegories may be read into many stories which the author may not have recognized.<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Nguyen|first1=Minh-Hoang|date=2024|title=How can satirical fables offer us a vision for sustainability? |url=https://ojs.unito.it/index.php/visions/article/view/11267|journal=Visions for Sustainability|volume=23|issue=11267 |pages=323–328|doi=10.13135/2384-8677/11267}}</ref> This is allegoresis, or the act of reading a story as an allegory. Examples of allegory in popular culture that may or may not have been intended include the works of [[Bertolt Brecht]], and even some works of science fiction and fantasy, such as ''[[The Chronicles of Narnia]]'' by [[C. S. Lewis]].

The story of the apple falling onto [[Isaac Newton]]'s head is another famous allegory. It simplified the idea of gravity by depicting a simple way it was supposedly discovered. It also made the scientific revelation well known by condensing the theory into a short tale.<ref>{{cite web |title=Revised Memoir of Newton (Normalized Version) |url=http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/view/texts/normalized/OTHE00001 |access-date=13 March 2017 |website=The [[Newton Project]]}}</ref>

==Poetry and fiction==

[[File:Allegory of Arithmetic - detail.JPG|thumb|Detail of [[Laurent de La Hyre]]'s ''Allegory of Arithmetic'', {{Circa|1650}}]]
While allegoresis may enable the discovery of allegory in a work, not every resonant work of modern fiction is allegorical, and some are clearly not intended to be viewed this way. According to Henry Littlefield's 1964 article, [[L. Frank Baum]]'s ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', may be readily understood as a plot-driven fantasy narrative in an extended fable with talking animals and broadly sketched characters, intended to discuss the politics of the time.<ref>Littlefield, Henry (1964). "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism". ''American Quarterly'', 16 (1): 47–58. {{doi|10.2307/2710826}}.</ref> Yet, [[George MacDonald]] emphasized in 1893 that "A fairy tale is not an allegory."<ref name="Baum2000">{{cite book |first=L. Frank |last=Baum |author-link= L. Frank Baum |title= The Annotated Wizard of Oz: The Wonderful Wizard of Oz |url= https://archive.org/details/annotatedwizardo0000baum |url-access=registration |date=2000 |publisher=Norton |isbn=978-0-393-04992-3 |page=[https://archive.org/details/annotatedwizardo0000baum/page/101 101]}}</ref>

[[J. R. R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' is another example of a well-known work mistakenly perceived as allegorical, as the author himself once stated, "...I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned – with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author."<ref name="BogstadKaveny2011">{{cite book |editor-first=Janice M. |editor-last=Bogstad |editor2-first=Philip E. |editor2-last=Kaveny |title=Picturing Tolkien:Essays on Peter Jackson's ''The Lord of the Rings'' Film Trilogy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jNjKrXRP0G8C&pg=PA189 |date=9 August 2011 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-8473-7 |page=189}}</ref>

Tolkien specifically resented the suggestion that the book's [[One Ring]], which gives overwhelming power to those possessing it, was intended as an allegory of [[nuclear weapons]]. He noted that, had that been his intention, the book would not have ended with the Ring being destroyed but rather with an [[arms race]] in which various powers would try to obtain such a Ring for themselves. Then Tolkien went on to outline an alternative plot for "Lord of The Rings", as it would have been written had such an allegory been intended, and which would have made the book into a [[dystopia]]. While all this does not mean Tolkien's works may not be treated as having allegorical themes, especially when reinterpreted through postmodern sensibilities, it at least suggests that none were conscious in his writings. This further reinforces the idea of forced allegoresis, as allegory is often a matter of interpretation and only sometimes of original artistic intention.

Like allegorical stories, allegorical poetry has two meanings – a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning.

Some unique specimens of allegory can be found in the following works:
*[[Edmund Spenser]] &ndash; ''[[The Faerie Queene]]'': The several knights in the poem actually stand for several virtues.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Faerie Queene {{!}} work by Spenser|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Faerie-Queene|access-date=2020-10-12|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>
*[[William Shakespeare]] &ndash; ''[[The Tempest]]'': an allegory of the civilisation/barbarism binary as it pertains to colonialism
*[[John Bunyan]] &ndash; ''[[The Pilgrim's Progress]]'': The journey of the protagonists Christian and Evangelist symbolises the ascension of the soul from earth to Heaven.
*[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] &ndash; ''[[Young Goodman Brown]]'': The Devil's Staff symbolises defiance of God. The characters' names, such as ''Goodman'' and ''Faith'', ironically serve as paradox in the conclusion of the story.
*[[Nathaniel Hawthorne]] &ndash; ''[[The Scarlet Letter]]'': The letter represents self-reliance from America's Puritan and conformity.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Scarlet Letter {{!}} Summary, Analysis, Characters, & Facts|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Scarlet-Letter-novel-by-Hawthorne|access-date=2020-10-12|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref>
*[[Esteban Echeverría]] &ndash; ''[[The Slaughter Yard]]:'' The slaughter yard represents the violence and brutality of the [[Federal Pact|Federalist]] regime of [[Juan Manuel de Rosas]] in [[Buenos Aires Province|Buenos Aires]] and his [[parapolice]] thugs, the ''[[Mazorca]]''.
*[[George Orwell]] &ndash; ''[[Animal Farm]]'': The pigs stand for political figures of the [[Russian Revolution]].<ref>{{Cite web|title='Animal Farm': Andy Serkis-directed adaptation of George Orwell's allegory acquired by Netflix – Wonderfully Curated News|url=https://wcregisteronline.com/2020/10/12/animal-farm-andy-serkis-directed-adaptation-of-george-orwells-allegory-acquired-by-netflix/|access-date=2020-10-12|language=en-US}}</ref>
*[[Julio Cortázar]] &ndash; ''[[Casa Tomada]]:'' The take over of the protagonists' house is said to represent [[Peronism]] taking over [[Argentina]].
*[[László Krasznahorkai]] – ''[[The Melancholy of Resistance]]'' and the film ''[[Werckmeister Harmonies]]'': It uses a circus to describe an occupying dysfunctional government.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Romm|first=Jake|date=2017-04-26|title=Misery Loves Company|url=https://thenewinquiry.com/misery-loves-company/|access-date=2020-10-12|website=The New Inquiry|language=en-US}}</ref>
*[[Edgar Allan Poe]] &ndash; ''[[The Masque of the Red Death]]'': The story can be read as an allegory for humans' inability to escape death.<ref>Roppolo, Joseph Patrick. "Meaning and 'The Masque of the Red Death'", collected in Poe: A Collection of Critical Essays, edited by Robert Regan. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1967. p. 137.</ref>
*[[Arthur Miller]] &ndash; ''[[The Crucible]]'': The [[Salem witch trials]] are thought to be an allegory for [[McCarthyism]] and the [[blacklisting]] of [[Communists]] in the [[United States|United States of America]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Sullivan |first=James |date=October 2, 2020|title=What really made Salem the Witch City – The Boston Globe|url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/10/02/metro/what-really-made-salem-witch-city/|access-date=2020-10-12|website=BostonGlobe.com}}</ref>
*[[Shel Silverstein]] &ndash; ''[[The Giving Tree]]'': The book has been described as an allegory about relationships; between parents and children, between romantic partners, or between humans and the environment.
*[[Nonoy Marcelo]] &ndash; ''[[Ikabod Bubwit]]'': The rodents represent the political figures and working class in the Philippines, with the title character served as an allegory of [[Ferdinand Marcos]].

===Art===
Some elaborate and successful specimens of allegory are to be found in the following works, arranged in approximate chronological order:
*[[Ambrogio Lorenzetti]] &ndash; ''[[The Allegory of Good and Bad Government|Allegoria del Buono e Cattivo Governo e loro Effetti in Città e Campagna]]'' ({{Circa|1338–1339}})
*[[Sandro Botticelli]] &ndash; ''[[Primavera (Botticelli)|Primavera]]'' ({{Circa|1482}})
*[[Albrecht Dürer]] &ndash; ''[[Melencolia I]]'' (1514)
*[[Bronzino]] &ndash; ''[[Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time]]'' ({{Circa|1545}})
*[[English art|The English School's]] &ndash; ''"Allegory of Queen Elizabeth"'' ({{Circa|1610}})
*[[Artemisia Gentileschi]] &ndash; ''[[Allegory of Inclination]]'' ({{Circa|1620}}), ''An Allegory of Peace and the Arts under the English Crown'' (1638); ''[[Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (Artemisia Gentileschi)|Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting]]'' ({{Circa|1638–39}})
* The ''[[Feast of Herod with the Beheading of St John the Baptist]]'' by [[Bartholomeus Strobel]] is also an allegory of Europe in the time of the [[Thirty Years' War]], with portraits of many leading political and military figures.
*[[Jan Vermeer]] &ndash; ''[[The Art of Painting|Allegory of Painting]]'' ({{Circa|1666}})
*Fernand Le Quesne – ''[[c:File:Fernand_Le_Quesne_-_Allégorie_de_la_publicité.jpg|Allégorie de la publicité]]''
*[[Jean-Léon Gérôme]] &ndash; ''[[Truth Coming Out of Her Well]]'' (1896)
*[[Graydon Parrish]] &ndash; ''[[The Cycle of Terror and Tragedy]]'' (2006)
*Many statues of [[Lady Justice]]: "Such visual representations have raised the question why so many allegories in the history of art, pertaining occupations once reserved for men only, are of female sex."<ref>[[Cäcilia Rentmeister]]: The Muses, Banned From Their Occupations: Why Are There So Many Allegories Female? [http://www.cillie-rentmeister.de/themen/english/ English summary from Kvinnovetenskaplig Tidskrift, Nr.4. 1981, Lund, Sweden as PDF. Retrieved 10.July 2011] Original Version in German: ''Berufsverbot für die Musen. Warum sind so viele Allegorien weiblich?'' In: Ästhetik und Kommunikation, Nr. 25/1976, S. 92–112. Langfassung in: Frauen und Wissenschaft. Beiträge zur Berliner Sommeruniversität für Frauen, Juli 1976, Berlin 1977, S.258–297. With illustrations. [http://www.cillie-rentmeister.de/berufsverbot-fuer-die-musen/ Full Texts Online: Cäcilia (Cillie) Rentmeister: publications]</ref>
*[[Damien Hirst]] [[Verity (sculpture)|''Verity'']] (2012)

==Gallery==
<gallery class="center" widths="170px" heights="170px" style="font-size:92%; line-height:130%" caption="Allegorical Paintings of the 16th and 17th century">
File:Melencolia I (Durero).jpg|[[Albrecht Dürer]], ''[[Melencolia I|Melencolia&nbsp;I]]'' (1514): Unused tools, an hourglass, an empty scale surrounds a female [[personification]], with other esoteric and exoteric symbols.
File:Angelo Bronzino - Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time - National Gallery, London.jpg|[[Bronzino]], ''[[Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time]]'' ({{Circa|1545}}): The deities of love are surrounded by personifications of (probably) Time (a bald, man with angry eyes), Folly (the young woman-demon on the right, possibly also so old woman on the left), and others.
File:Titian - Allegorie der Zeit.jpg|[[Titian]], ''[[Allegory of Prudence]]'' ({{Circa|&nbsp;1565–1570}}): The three human heads symbolise past, present and future, the characterisation of which is furthered by the triple-headed beast (wolf, lion, dog), girded by the body of a big snake.
File:Elizabeth-I-Allegorical-Po.jpg|[[English art|The English School's]] ''Allegory of Queen Elizabeth'' ({{Circa|1610}}), with [[Father Time]] at her right and [[The Grim Reaper|Death]] looking over her left shoulder. Two cherubs are removing the weighty crown from her tired head.
File:Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura) - Artemisia Gentileschi.jpg|[[Artemisia Gentileschi]], ''[[Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (Artemisia Gentileschi)|Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting]]'' ({{Circa|1638–39}})
File:Jan Vermeer - The Art of Painting - Google Art Project.jpg|[[Jan Vermeer]], ''[[The Art of Painting]]'' ({{Circa|1666}}): Painting is shown as related to history and politics, the young woman being Clio, the muse of history, and other symbols for the political and religious division of the Netherlands appearing.
File:Kessel, Jan van Sr. - Allegory of Hearing.JPG|[[Jan van Kessel, senior|Jan van Kessel]], ''Allegory of Hearing'' (17th century): Diverse sources of sound, especially instruments serve as allegorical symbols.
File:August bouttats-españa triunfante.jpg|Flemish [[August Bouttats]], ''Allegory of Triumphant Spain with immaculist banner'', {{Circa|1682}}, cover of ''Triumphant Spain and the laureate church all over the world by the patronage of Holy Mary''. Collection: [[Hispanic Society of America]].
</gallery>

==See also==
* Allegories
** {{Annotated link|Allegorical interpretations of Plato}}
** {{Annotated link|Allegorical interpretation of the Bible}}
** {{Annotated link|Allegory in Renaissance literature}}
** {{Annotated link|Allegorical sculpture}}
* {{Annotated link|Cultural depictions of Philip II of Spain}}
* {{Annotated link|Diwan (poetry)}}
* {{Annotated link|Extended metaphor}}
* {{Annotated link|Freemasonry}} ("a system of morality veiled in allegory and illustrated by symbols")
* {{Annotated link|Parable}}
* {{Annotated link|Semiotics}}
* {{Annotated link|Theagenes of Rhegium}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
*[[Northrop Frye|Frye, Northrop]] (1957) ''[[Anatomy of Criticism]]''.
*Fletcher, Angus (1964) ''Allegory: The Theory of a Symbolic Mode''.
*[[Michel Foucault|Foucault, Michel]] (1966) ''[[The Order of Things]]''.
*{{cite book|last1=Jain|first1=Champat Rai|title=The Key Of Knowledge|date=1919|publisher=The Central Jaina Publishing House|via=Internet Archive|location=Allahabad|edition=Second|url=https://archive.org/details/keyofknowledge|access-date=17 November 2015|author-link=Champat Rai Jain}}
* {{cite book
  | last1 = Schwarcz
  | first1 = Lilia Moritz
  | year = 1998
  | language = pt
  | title = As barbas do imperador: D. Pedro II, um monarca nos trópicos
  | publisher = Companhia das Letras
  | location = São Paulo
  | isbn = 85-7164-837-9
}}

==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
{{Wiktionary|Allegory|Allegories}}
*[http://xtf.lib.virginia.edu/xtf/view?docId=DicHist/uvaBook/tei/DicHist1.xml;chunk.id=dv1-07;toc.depth=1;toc.id=dv1-07;brand=default;query=allegory#1 "Allegory in Literary history"], ''[[Dictionary of the History of Ideas]]'' 
*[http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/ElAnt/V1N5/levis.html ''Electronic Antiquity'', Richard Levis, "Allegory and the ''Eclogues''"] Roman definitions of ''allegoria'' and interpreting Vergil's ''[[Eclogue]]s''.
*[https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/what-allegory ''What is an Allegory?''] Introduction to Allegory

{{Narrative modes}}
{{Figures of speech}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Allegory| ]]
[[Category:Figures of speech]]
[[Category:Narrative techniques]]
[[Category:Poetic devices]]