National Gallery of Art :: The Collection :: Portrait of a Lady
  • Inscription
  • Provenance
  • Exhibition History
  • Bibliography

Overview

No overview.

Inscription

across bottom: QVANTVM.HOMINI.FAS.EST.MIRA.LICET.ASSEQVAR.ARTE. / NIL.AGO:MORTALIS.EMVLOR.ARTE.DEOS. (Whatever a human being is permitted to, I attain through my prodigious art; yet, a mortal competing with gods, my effort is useless); lower left in triangle: O.P.[?]; lower right in triangle: NER

Marks and Labels

null

Provenance

(Professor Luigi Grassi [1858-1940], 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.

Exhibition History

1933
A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture Lent from American Collections, Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 121, repro., as Portrait of a Woman.
1979
Berenson and the Connoisseurship of Italian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1979, no. 34, repro.
1992
Art and Culture Around 1492, Monasterio de Santa Maria de las Cuevas, within the grounds of the Universal Exposition, Seville, 1992, no. 100, repro., as Portrait of a Young Woman.
2007
Renaissance Sienna: Art for a City, National Gallery, London, 2007-2008, no. 51, repro.

Bibliography

1916
Berenson, Bernard, and William Roberts. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early Italian and Spanish Schools. Philadelphia, 1916: unpaginated, repro.
1923
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.
1931
Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Thirty-five Portraits from American Collections." The Art News 29, no. 33 (1931): 4.
1931
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 150, repro.
1942
Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 6.
1948
Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 5, repro.
1957
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 66
1963
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 74, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 96
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:16, color repro.
1968
European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1968: 85, repro.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 254, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: I:343-344, II:pl. 250
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 82, no. 35, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 292, repro.
1990
Campbell, Lorne. Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries. New Haven, 1990: fig. 102, color fig. 103.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 531-535, color repro.

Related Works

Related Resources

  • Event Type
    Event Name
    March 1–June 1
    Mon, Tues, and Wed at 1:00
    March 5, 2012 at 2:00
    March 7, 2012 at 4:00
    East Building, Auditorium
    Name of docent
    image:
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum
    60 minutes
    Registration for this event begins on April 1, 2012 at noon.
    Register for this event
    Download the program notes (100k)
  • Self-Guided Tour
    Italian Collection
    image:
    Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum