The Blind Leading the Blind
Probably Mantua, about 1621/2
Oil on wood
60.7 x 44.2 cm
Fetti illustrated many of Christ’s parables, creating a new type of small-scale religious genre painting.
Here, three peasants, one with an extinguished lamp, foolishly follow their blind leader into a ditch, illustrating Christ’s warning to His disciples. The group is contrasted, above, with an able-bodied horseman riding in the opposite direction. The pathos of the event is heightened by a dark, stormy landscape.
Fetti was court painter to the Duke of Mantua for whom he painted thirteen parables. This is a slightly later variant of one of them.
Purchased 1949 (No.49.13)
