Portrait of a Lady
Giovanni Antonio Fasolo·c. 1565
Historical Context
Giovanni Antonio Fasolo painted this portrait of a lady around 1565, reflecting the elegant portrait culture of the Venetian mainland (terraferma) during the late Renaissance. Fasolo was a Vicentine painter who trained under Paolo Veronese and produced portraits and frescoes for the patrician families of the Veneto. His female portraits capture the refined social culture of the Venetian aristocracy with warmth and sensitivity.
Technical Analysis
Fasolo's oil on canvas demonstrates the warm Venetian palette and fluid brushwork inherited from Veronese. The luminous rendering of the lady's silk costume and the gentle modeling of her features reflect the Venetian tradition of sensuous, painterly portraiture.
Provenance
Don Gaspar Méndez de Haro y Guzmán, Marqués del Carpio y Helice, viceroy of Naples (died 1687), Naples [his monogram, DGH. / li67 surmounted by a crown (initials in ligature), is painted on the reverse of the painting; see Civai 1990, pp. 62–64]; his estate, 1687–1704, [Civai 1990 suggests that the painting is the “ritratto di donna veneziana palmi 6 e 4 di Paol Veroniese” recorded in the 1692 inventory of Guzmán’s collection as no. 328]; Florentine creditors of Don Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán, by 1704, from whom presumably acquired by the Martelli family, Florence, inventories of 1712, 1771, and 1802–13 [see Civai 1990]; by descent to the brothers Niccolò, Carlo, and Ugolino Martelli, Florence [according to Civai 1990 who documents the painting in Martelli possession through an old photograph]; sold by them to Albert Harnish, 1910 [according to Civai 1990]. Mrs. Henry Osborne Havemeyer (died 1929); sold in her sale, American Art Association, New York, April 10, 1930, no. 104 (ill.), for $800, to Metropolitan Gallery, New York [price according to annotated sale catalogue in the Ryerson Library, Art Institute; buyer given in annotated sale catalogue at Knoedler, New York, according to a letter from Melissa De Medeiros to Mary Kuzniar dated April 14, 1991 in curatorial file]. Sold American Art Association, New York, 6 May 1937, lot 98, for $150 to Chester Dale; given to the Art Institute, 1946.
