Portrait of a Lady
Neroccio di Bartolomeo de' Landi·c. 1485
Historical Context
Neroccio de' Landi's Portrait of a Lady from around 1485 is among the most refined of Sienese fifteenth-century portraits, the unknown sitter depicted in profile against a plain ground in the manner derived ultimately from ancient Roman coin portraits. The profile portrait format was favored in Siena and Florence for female sitters in the Quattrocento, its formal clarity emphasizing the elegance of the face and profile of hair and dress. Neroccio's treatment shows his distinctive manner at its finest: the face is modeled with delicate precision, the elaborate headdress depicted with the goldsmith's attention to detail, and the whole suffused with a gentle light that gives the image both physical presence and idealized grace. The painting is one of the most beautiful female portraits of the Italian Renaissance, comparable in refinement to Ghirlandaio's Florentine female portraits from the same decade.
Technical Analysis
The tempera-on-pine technique achieves a smooth, luminous surface that enhances the sitter's pale complexion. Neroccio's characteristically sinuous contour lines create an elegant silhouette, while the delicate rendering of jewelry, hair, and costume demonstrates his miniaturist precision.
Provenance
(Professor Luigi Grassi [1858-1937], Florence and Rome), by June 1911. (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London), by September 1911;[1] sold January 1912 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Philadelphia;[2] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] gift 1942 to NGA. [1] In a letter of 11 June 1911 Sulley informed Bernard Berenson of his decision to buy the Neroccio portrait from Grassi. On 11 September of the same year he wrote again to Berenson, stating that the portrait was already in London. See Berenson's correspondence in the archives of the Biblioteca Berenson, Villa I Tatti, Florence. [2] The Widener collection card (in NGA curatorial files) records the painting as having been "bought from Sulley, January 15, 1912." Joseph Widener wrote to Berenson on 5 March 1912 about "recent additions, the best of which...is that charming little portrait by Neroccio di Landi" (David Alan Brown, _Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting_, exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979: 21, 53 n. 34). [3] Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:344.
See It In Person
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