16th Century German Renaissance Allegorical Oil Painting Sexual Health Syphilis by Christoph Schwarz, Circa 1580

A large & important German Renaissance oil painting, an allegory on good sexual health, by Christoph Schwarz (1545-1592), "A Warning Against Venereal Disease", circa 1580. Christoph Schwarz was known to create a wide variety of works, including altarpieces, frescoes, and other oil paintings. A number of Schwarz's work were later turned into engravings by the Netherlandish engraver Johannes I Sadeler (1550-1600), Sadeler had reproduced this work as an engraving in 1590.The painting depicts a fountain with a statue of Venus and Cupid, and below a seated woman playing a lute. In the centre, an old man identified by the German art historian Erwin Panofsky (1892-1968) as the poet Fracastoro holding his poem 'Syphilis sive morbus gallicus'; below a dog is urinating in the stream. On the right, a man also identified by Panofsky as Syphilus the mythical shepherd, he is portrayed bent over drinking from the same stream & another man holding a spear, standing behind him, identified by Pa