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Italian, Florentine, 'Portrait of a Lady', about 1535-50

About the work

Overview

We do not know the identity of the elegant young woman portrayed here, but her costume suggests a date of about 1540. She sits before a green curtain and meets our eye with a direct, confident gaze. The green curtain and the woman’s appearance and headdress are very similar to Bronzino’s Portrait of a Woman and her Little Boy of about 1540, now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington. The National Gallery’s portrait may be of the same woman, slightly older.

The picture has been reduced in size and the paint has worn thin and been retouched in many places, which makes it difficult to work out who painted it. It was formerly thought to be by Bronzino or by Cristofano Allori (1577–1621), the son of Bronzino’s pupil Alessandro Allori. However, the dating of the costume to the 1540s makes it unlikely to be by Cristofano Allori, unless it is a copy of an earlier portrait.

Key facts

Details

Full title
Portrait of a Lady
Date made
about 1535-50
Medium and support
oil on wood
Dimensions
59.1 × 48.5 cm
Acquisition credit
Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831
Inventory number
NG21
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection
Previous owners

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

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