Italian, Milanese, 'Female Members of a Confraternity', about 1500

Fourteen smartly dressed ladies kneel in prayer – female members of a confraternity (religious organisation) praying to their patron saint; the male members are shown in another painting. They are clearly meant to be recognisable people, although none has yet been identified.

We are not sure who this painting is by, but it’s thought to have been made in Milan in around 1500. It was once part of a banner carried in the confraternity’s processions – it was painted on silk or canvas, and later mounted on wood. The paint is very thin, and has been much damaged by flaking and extensively repaired.

The women wear a variety of clothes, reflecting both their age and their social status. Older women tend to have their hair covered, sometimes by several layers of veils, while the younger ones tie it back in fine nets held in place by narrow bands. At the front, a young lady in green stands between two older women. These three have the highest social status: they the most richly dressed and are shown in profile, as was traditional for aristocratic portraits (such as Giovanni da Oriolo’s Leonello d‘Este). Two wear newly fashionable square necklines and sleeves slashed at the shoulders to reveal puffs of their linen underdresses. The lady nearest to us, in red, has a fine veil and gold rings on her fingers. The blonde hair of the woman next to her is tied up in a net; a pendant – a large ruby surrounded by pearls – hangs from her circlet, which is also set with pearls. Her green velvet dress has turned-back cuffs and she wears white gloves with small tassels. Gloves at this time were usually made of soft suede, although they could be silk; those produced in Milan were especially fine.

Their dress suggests they are members of the ruling elite. Milan at this time was governed by the Sforzas and the young lady’s pendant is extremely close to one depicted in the borders of manuscripts made for that family. She could perhaps be Isabella d’Aragona, who married Gian Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, in 1489; she looks not unlike a portrait bust of Isabella now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna. Women were often stylised to fit with contemporary ideals of beauty, however, so it isn't really possible to identify her precisely.