Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index
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Title:
Profile Portrait of a Lady
Creator:
Description:
This Franco-Flemish profile portrait is a rare example of an independent female portrait from the fifteenth century. The style of this painting is consistent with the International Style of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, which used a mixed technique, paint, and metalwork. The identity of the artist is unknown. However, he is believed to have been part of a group of painters from the Netherlands that came to work for the Burgundian and French royal courts. Likewise, the identity of the lady is unknown. However, her lavish appearance suggests that she must have been a woman of considerable wealth and power in the French court, possibly Isabeau or Margaret of Bavaria, Margaret of Flanders, or Yolande of Anjou. (Virtue and Beauty, pg. 100) She wears an expensive looking blue and gold dress with a white fur collar and a double chain of ornate gold beads that curves across her body and attaches at the shoulder. The heavy choker around her neck and the delicate belt surrounding her waist are made of metallic foil. At one time, there may have been a pendant with a heraldic devise hanging from her choker that would have identified the sitter. Her headress and hair ahow evidence of being repainted in the early 20th century to create a turban. Because this portrait was likely for a prospective suitor, the sitter’s features are emphasized; the stark, dark background draws attention to her high forehead, fashionably plucked hairline, and pale skin tone.
Source:
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
Rights:
Open access
Subject
(See Also)
:
Jewelry
Noble Women
Profile Portraits
Geographic Area:
France
Century:
15
Date:
1410
Related Work:
Current Location:
Washington D.C., National Gallery of Art, Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.23
Original Location:
Burgundy (?), France (?)
Artistic Type (Category):
Digital Images; Paintings;
Artistic Type (Material/Technique):
Panel; Oil;
Donor:
Height/Width/Length(cm):
52.0 cm/36.6 cm/
Inscription:
Related Resources:
John Oliver Hand and National Gallery of Art (U.S.), National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection, Washington D.C., New York, National Gallery of Art, 2004, pgs. 53-54; David Alan Brown, et al., Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra De' Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Wome,. Washington, Princeton, National Gallery of Art, 2001, pg. 100-101