Ecole italienne vers 1640 Portrait of a Lady

Italian School circa 1640
Portrait of a Lady

Oil on canvas
215,3 x 156 cm ; 84¾ by 61⅜ in.

Catalogue Note:
Strikingly attributed to a follower of the Spanish painter Juan Pantoja de la Cruz when it was offered at auction in London in 1988, this elegant portrait was subsequently, and more plausibly, associated with the Lombard school (Christie’s, London, 9 December 2009, lot 125). At the time, it was also suggested that the still life, almost certainly executed by a different hand from that of the portrait, might be by the Neapolitan painter Luca Forte.

Rather than with the Lombard school, however, we believe it should be compared with another important full-length portrait of a young woman, probably more closely connected with the Venetian artistic milieu, now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (inv. 6537; fig. 1). Very similar in format and pictorial handling, it has at various times been attributed to Luca Ferrari and to Tiberio Tinelli, two artists from Emilia-Romagna and the Veneto, respectively.

Provenance:
Anonymous sale, Sotheby's, London, 6 July 1988, lot 23 (as Follower of Juan Pantoja de la Cruz);

Anonymous sale, Christie's, London, 9 December 2009, lot 125 (as Lombard School, circa 1640).