Portrait of a Man

Rosalba Carriera painted this portrait miniature on ivory around 1710, during her early career in Venice before she became the most celebrated pastel portraitist in Europe. Carriera pioneered the use of ivory as a support for miniature painting, replacing the traditional vellum with a material that gave watercolor a warm, luminous glow. Her innovation transformed European miniature painting and established ivory as the standard support for the next two centuries.

This early ivory miniature demonstrates Carriera's revolutionary technique of exploiting the translucent warmth of the ivory support beneath delicate watercolor washes. The luminous flesh tones and soft modeling anticipate the pastel technique that would later make her famous across Europe.