The Fourth Hour of the Day, in the lineup of Raphael's Hours of the Day and of the Night, carries a sundial, a reminder, perhaps, that the day is passing. While many of her sisters were the subject of fervid late 19th century speculation over their symbolic meaning, this Hour was taken at face value and passed over with just a nod.
The black and white print from an etching gives detail that tends to be missing or altered in chromolithographic reproductions. As with all the Hours, the original frescoes being known only from etchings, the choice of color for her robes lay with the printer, who may have been more or less careful about not obscuring small features with the added ink.
This subject is seen quite frequently on cameos, but, with the rare exception, such as the example to the left, not generally executed with much skill. The sundial seems to suffer the most, losing its vane, its numerals, and its little cherub-headed support pedestal. The rim is its best preserved feature, easily leading to its being taken for some other, more commonly seen object. It seems likely that most cameo cutters were working either from poor quality prints or from another cameo, itself not of the highest order.
Some typical examples:
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Some carvers updated their subject a bit by converting the sundial into a clock. This version, due in part to the angle at which she was placed into her setting, also walks more than wafts, putting one in mind of U.S. Walking Liberty coins or the figure who was probably her inspiration, the French Marianne.
This quite modern piece clearly has borrowed this Hour, making her now representative of Time itself, flanked by the old Past, the young Future, and, for good measure, a crescent moon.
Sometimes, as we pursue our researches, we come across information from highly respected sources that conflicts with what we have learned independently. One such case involves this terracotta bas-relief by the late 18th - early 19th century French sculptor Claude Michel, known as "Clodion". After deciding that the figure is Urania, Muse of Astronomy, an eminent auction house reached the conclusion that because Clodion had received a commission from Poland to create a monument for the astronomer Copernicus, the bas-relief was surely created as part of the (never executed) design, perhaps meant for use on the base. Under this description it attracted some avid bidders, ultimately selling for almost thrice the original estimate of 15,000 €. The relief is shown below.
This Clodion relief has come to be known as the Allegory of Astronomy or sometimes as the Allegory of Day, the latter perhaps assigned when it was decided another Clodion bas-relief was surely a companion piece and was clearly the Allegory of Night. That bas-relief is shown in the article on the Second Hour of the Day.
Without a vane or numerals, a cameo with this figure is readily taken as holding a small shield or a large drum/tambourine and assigned an identity accordingly. Some pieces may simply be too ambiguous to make a determination. The way the disk is held, with both hands supporting it, seems to be specific to this composition, while drums and shields are carried with one hand, leaving the other free to beat or wield a sword.
The Hours are often described as being nymphs. A conventional way of depicting generic nymphs is with the hair piled in a distinctive conical arrangement and, sometimes, butterfly/moth wings on the back, as with the figure on this cameo, who does hold something round with the characteristic grip of the Hour. However, since the Fourth Hour of the Day, unlike a couple of her sisters from the Night, does not wear wings, nor style her hair in this fashion, the identity of this figure is open to question.
There is a family resemblance here in the wings and hair. However, the firm groundline below her feet and the use of only one hand to support the object she carries--most likely a drum, a tympanon--must rule her out as an Hour.
The variant on the left below, although suggestive of the Vestal Virgin Tuccia and her sieve, is not grounded in the way of confirmed Tuccias in the act of pointing to the sieve, nor does she use the 'proper' Hour grip; it is more likely she is beating a drum. Next to her is a well grounded figure in the tiptoe position that often indicates dancing, holding her object high, hand, not pointing at it, rather in the act of thumping it with the fingers, probably engaged in Bacchic revels.
At first glance, this figure might seem to belong with the others just above. Or, because of the resemblance of the marks on what she carries to the vane and hour marks of a sundial, she could seem a likely candidate for a variant Hour. But, no sundial, sieve or drum for her. She is painting. On what, we can only conjecture, and the scene looks suspiciously like a sailboat on the waters of the Bay of Naples.