'Laura', Laure de Noves wife of Hugues de Sade (d.1348)
French School
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1800 - 1899
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
730 x 500 mm
Place of origin
France
Order this imageCollection
Ickworth, Suffolk
NT 851991
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, 'Laura', Laure de Noves, wife of Hugues de Sade (d.1348), French School, 19th century. Label on frame 'Petrarch's Laura, C19, Italian School' A half-length imaginary portrait of the Italian poet Petrarch's muse as a young woman, turned to the left, in profile, wearing a red dress and close-fitting headdress edged with red braid. Laure de Noves, married in 1325 to Hugo de Sade. She died, the mother of eleven children, in 1348. She was first seen by Petrarch in a church at Avignon at Eastertide in 1327 and inspired him with a passion which has become proverbial for its constancy and purity. She remained the love of his life until and even after her death and was the inspiration of his famous love poems Rime or Canzoniere.
Provenance
Frederick Hervey, 1st Marquess of Bristol by 1837 (possibly acquired in Paris); purchased by National Trust at Sotheby's sale of the contents of The East Wing, Ickworth, Suffolk, on 11-12 June 1996 (499)
Makers and roles
French School, artist