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Shown from the thighs up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a cream-white gown ornamented with gold bows looks at us from the corners of her brown eyes in this vertical portrait. Her body faces us, but she turns her head to our left. She has thin, arched eyebrows, a straight nose, flushed cheeks, a dimple in her chin, and her pink lips are closed. Her chestnut-brown hair is parted down the middle and pulled back under a gold and pearl headdress, but two wispy curls lie on her smooth forehead near the temple we can see. A string of black pearls ending in a gold pendant hangs down the front of her ear. A white ruffled collar encircles her neck over two heavy, gold necklaces. A blue stone and a pearl in a gold setting lies on her chest, and the second chain reaches to her waist. The satin bodice is fitted, and the sleeves are puffy below the shoulders. Voluminous long sleeves are slitted and a white chemise patterned with delicate black designs is pulled through, creating little tufts. She wears three gold rings on her two hands. She holds white gloves and a pink carnation in one hand, which rests on a table covered in a red tapestry to our right, and a dark green feather fan in her other hand. Her gown splits over a pine-green skirt beneath. A shimmering, forest-green velvet curtain behind the woman sweeps to one side to reveal a caramel-grown stone pillar along the left edge of the painting.

Moretto da Brescia

Portrait of a Lady in White, c. 1540

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 22

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 106.4 x 87.6 cm (41 7/8 x 34 1/2 in.)

framed: 142.2 x 115.9 x 8.6 cm (56 x 45 5/8 x 3 3/8 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1939.1.230

Artists / Makers

Moretto da Brescia (artist) Italian, 1498 - 1554

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Provenance

Rocca collection, Como, Italy.[1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Florence and Rome); sold 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1939 to NGA.

[1] According to Kress records in NGA curatorial files.

[2] According to Fern Rusk Shapley, Catalogue of the Italian Paintings, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1979, vol. 1, p. 335-336. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1686.

Associated Names

Contini Bonacossi, Alessandro, Count
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Rocca

Exhibition History

1939: La Pittura Bresciana del Rinascimento, Palazzo Tosio-Martinengo, Brescia, 1939, no. 108.

1940: Italian Renaissance Portraits, M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1940, no. 19.

1940: Masterpieces of Art. European & American Paintings 1500-1900, New York World's Fair, May-October 1940, no. 9, repro.

1988: Alessandro Bonvicino- Il Moretto, Monastero di S. Giulia, Brescia, 1988, repro.

Bibliography

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 136, no. 341.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 246, repro. 155.

1959: Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 198, repro.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 94.

1968: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:279.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 82, repro.

1968: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 92, fig. 221.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 246, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:335-336; 2:pl. 244.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 284, repro.

1995: Buss, Chiara. Silk and Colour: Collezione Antonio Ratti. Milan, 1997: 40, repro.