An Unknown Noblewoman seated in a Chair
attributed to Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 - Rome 1614)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1570 - 1629
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1055 x 840 mm
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Petworth House and Park, West Sussex
NT 486252
Caption
Fontana was the daughter of a Bolognese painter, whose trade she chose to adopt, which was unusual for a woman at this time. She initially made her name painting the upper class ladies of her home town, Bologna. The sumptuous dress and jewellery worn by this sitter suggests her elevated social standing. The dress and particularly the ruff around her neck have been painted with exquisite detail. Stylistically this portrait is close to some of the Venetian portraitists, who were working around this time, such as Veronese and Tintoretto.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, An Unknown Noblewoman seated in a Chair, attributed to Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 – Bologna 1614). A three-quarter-length portrait, seated, three-quarters left, in an arm-chair, dressed in silver-grey with gold buttons, a pearl necklace, ruff and gold pearl-studded bracelets. A green silk hanging is shown behind the figure. This figure shows a close affinity to the woman holding a clock, third from the left in the procession featured in Fontana's The Visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon (National Gallery of Ireland, NGI.76) and could have been based on the same sitter.
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)
Makers and roles
attributed to Lavinia Fontana (Bologna 1552 - Rome 1614), artist
Exhibition history
Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 2023
References
Brady, Canavan and Marcattili 2021: Aoife Brady, Maria Canavan and Letizia Marcattili, The Crowning Glory: Lavinia Fontana’s Queen of Sheba and King Solomon, National Gallery of Ireland, 2021, pp. 21-22 Brady 2023: Aoife Brady, Lavinia Fontana: Trailblazer, Rule Breaker, exh.cat., National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin 2023, no. 60, p. 139.