Italian, Ferrarese or Bolognese follower of Raphael, 'A Female Saint', 16th or 17th century

We do not know who painted this picture, although it is likely they were working in Ferrara or Bologna. The woman looks directly at us and presses her right hand against her breast. Her oval face, strong regular features and plaited bound hairstyle give her the appearance of a woman from ancient Rome.

The painting may be an idealised portrait of a woman in the guise of a saint; she has a thin gold halo above her head, like a fine circle of golden wire. Saints are usually portrayed holding a martyr’s palm and an attribute associated with their martyrdom which allows the viewer to identify them – for example, Saint Lucy often carries her eyes on a plate and Saint Agnes is shown with a lamb. However, if the woman in this picture is a saint the only clue we are given to her identity is the hand resting on her breast. It is possible that she represents Saint Agatha, who was martyred in AD 251 by having her breasts cut off; Saint Agatha is usually shown touching her breast or holding her severed breasts on a dish.

This painting is another version and probably a copy of a Female Saint (private collection, now untraced) by a Ferrarese or Bolognese follower of Raphael. Both paintings are related in design to Raphael’s Donna Velata (Palazzo Pitti, Florence) and particularly to a painting by Giulio Romano which was derived from his master Raphael’s picture. The straight nose, broad eyebrows and dressing of the hair recall female figures by Dosso Dossi, such as the one in his Allegory of Fortune (J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles), from the 1530s. The impasto used to suggest the gilded fringe of the veil is a technique for painting such textures seen in the work of Dosso and Parmigianino. However, the softness of the flesh and the delicate tonal transitions are not characteristic of Dosso and it is not certain that the original artist was from Ferrara.

The frame dates from the seventeenth century and has suffered from the same type of worm damage as the painting. The style of the frame is associated with the region of Emilia-Romagna, particularly Bologna. Technical analysis has revealed no evidence that this is a much later copy of a Renaissance painting, as has been suggested, indeed some elements support a dating to the sixteenth or perhaps seventeenth century.