Fulvia Pico della Mirandole, Comtesse de Randan (d.1607)
French School
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1550
Materials
Oil on panel
Measurements
222 x 165 mm
Place of origin
France
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486208
Caption
Fulvia Pico della Mirandola, Comtesse de Rendan, was maid of honour to Catherine de’ Medici. She was the wife of Charles de Larochefoucauld, Comte de Rendan, who died from wounds at Rouen in 1562. The sitter was previously identified as a ‘Lady of the French Court, possibly Catherine de’Medici’, but although there is some resemblance to this sitter, it does not seem reason enough to doubt the inscription with the name ‘de Rendan’. The inscription was revealed only relatively recently, when the picture was cleaned in 1952. The portrait appears to be by the same hand as a portrait of ‘Mme d’Alluye’ at Versailles, which was attributed to the ‘Peintre de Luxembourg-Martigues’, alias Marc Duval.
Summary
Oil painting on panel, Fulvia Pico della Mirandole, Comtesse de Randan (d.1607), French School, circa 1550. A head-and-shoulders portrait of a young woman, turned slightly to the left, gazing at the spectator, wearing a white headdress set with pearls and gold, a white yoke and collar, a small ruff and black stomacher. Round her neck she is wearing a red band set with pearls and gold. Inscribed, top left, in gold: DE RENDAN.
Provenance
In the collection of the 3rd Earl of Egremont (1751-1837) by 1835. Thence by descent, until the death in 1952 of the 3rd Lord Leconfield, who had given Petworth to the National Trust in 1947, and whose nephew and heir, John Wyndham, 6th Lord Leconfield and 1st Lord Egremont (1920-72) arranged for the acceptance of the major portion of the collections at Petworth in lieu of death duties (the first ever such arrangement) in 1956 by H.M.Treasury.
Credit line
Petworth House, The Egremont Collection (acquired in lieu of tax by HM Treasury in 1956 and subsequently transferred to the National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
DE RENDAN (top left and revealed during cleaning in 1952)
Makers and roles
French School, artist