# ID This Allegorical Painting?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-allegorical-painting/516933
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [November 9, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-allegorical-painting/516933 "2009-11-09T19:50:29Z")
**Posts on this page:** 3
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2009, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-allegorical-painting/516933/1 "2009-11-09T19:50:29Z")
I am trying to find the name of this apinting-it was an allegory of Mussolini’s Ialy-with Benito Mussolini as a jack-in-the-box.
I recall seeing it years ago-anybody know who painted it?
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### Author:  [@Mahna\_Mahna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahna_Mahna)
#### Post date: [November 9, 2009, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-allegorical-painting/516933/2 "2009-11-09T21:40:40Z")
A quickie Google search would suggest it’s [The Eternal City](http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php?criteria=O%3AAD%3AE%3A617&page_number=5&template_id=1&sort_order=1) by Peter Blume, which is on display at the MoMA.
I don’t know if it’s the right one, though, since it doesn’t fit the usual style of an allegorical painting. I’d probably label it as “surreal” if I had to pick just one word to describe it.
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### Author:  [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/id-this-allegorical-painting/516933/3 "2009-11-10T00:47:40Z")
I expect **Mahna Mahna** ’s got it–Blume’s painting is the only really famous work I can think of that portrays Mussolini as a jack-in-a-box.
Incidentally, allegorical paintings can be done in a variety of styles, even though they’re often of classical subjects and so done in a more classical style. There are a few other surrealist paintings that can be described as allegorical–e.g., Dali’s [\*Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (Premonition of Civil War)](http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/51315.html)\*, which, as the title suggests, is an allegory on the Spanish Civil War. OK, it’s not a terribly CLEAR allegory, but that’s Dali for you. 😃