Portrait of a Young Woman as a Wise Virgin

c. 1510

Sebastiano del Piombo

Artist, Venetian, 1485 - 1547

A young woman with a pale, peachy skin is shown from waist up, wearing a shimmering, royal-blue dress in this vertical painting. Her body is angled to our right as she holds a metal object, perhaps a vessel or incense burner, in her hands by her chest. She turns and tilts her head to our left, but then looks back across her body, off to our right with flint-gray eyes. She has a full, oval-shaped face with a straight nose, smooth cheeks, and her pale pink lips are closed. A gray pearl earring hangs from the ear we can see. Her auburn-brown hair is parted down the middle, and loosely pulled back into a braid that brushes her left shoulder, to our right. The blue dress has a square neckline and a fitted bodice. Light glints off the fabric, shading it from royal to sapphire blue. A voluminous white sleeve is rolled back to her right elbow, to our left. That arm and hand nearly span the width of the painting as she holds the vessel, which has a conical top, near the lower right corner of the composition. The background is solid black.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 25

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on hardboard transferred from panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 54.7 x 47.5 cm (21 9/16 x 18 11/16 in.)
    framed: 77.5 x 69.4 x 7.3 cm (30 1/2 x 27 5/16 x 2 7/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1952.2.9

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Jan and Jacobus van Veerle, Antwerp, by 1650. Edward White, London, by 1870; (probably his sale, Christie's, London, 5 April 1872); purchased by (Colnaghi's, London and New York) for Sir Francis Cook, 1st Bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey; by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd Bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd Bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th Bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset;[1] (Francis A. Drey, London); sold February 1947 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The record of the sale to the Kress Foundation (see note 2) states that the painting is from "the collection of the late Sir Herbert Cook of Richmond (Surrey) England." The 4th Bt. inherited the collection and managed its dispersal after World War II with the trustees of the Cook estate.
[2] Drey sold five Cook paintings to the Kress Foundation, including Sebastiano del Piombo's "Portrait of a Lady" (bill of sale dated 18 February 1947; copy in NGA curatorial files). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1726.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1870

  • Exhibition of the Works of the Old Masters, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1870, no. 149, as Vittoria Colonna.

1894

  • Exhibition of Venetian Art, The New Gallery, London, 1894-1895, no. 178, as Portrait of a Lady.

1914

  • The Venetian School. Pictures by Titian and his Contemporaries, Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1914, no. 9, plate XLV, as Portrait of a Lady.

1930

  • Exhibition of Italian Art 1200-1900, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1930, no. 399 (no. 398 in commemorative catalogue published 1931).

1944

  • Masterpieces from the Cook Collection, Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio, 1944-1945, no. 140 (Cook collection catalogue number), repro.

1945

  • Masterpieces of the Cook Collection, Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario); National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1945, no cat.

2006

  • Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 2006-2007, no. 40, repro., as Woman as a Wise Virgin.

2008

  • Sebastiano del Piombo, 1485-1547, Palazzo di Venezia, Rome; Kulturforum, Berlin, 2008, no. 13, fig. 7.

2019

  • Titian and the Renaissance in Venice, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie, Frankfurt, 2019.

Bibliography

1951

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 102, no. 41, repro., as Portrait of a Young Woman as Mary Magdalen.

  • Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 91-93, repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 68.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 165, repro.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 308, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 121.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 109, repro.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 165-166, fig. 397.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 322, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:420-421; 2:pl. 301.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 206, no. 250, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 370, repro.

2016

  • Facchinetti, Simone, and Arturo Galansino. In the Age of Giorgione. Exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2016: fig. 24.

2024

  • Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria. Sebastiano del Piombo. Da Giorgione a Raffaello e Michelangelo. Un pittore musico tra Venezia e Roma (1501-1511). Quinto di Treviso, 2024:238, 240, 246-247, 249-253, 267-268, 279, 286,318, fig. 196, 200, 201, 202.

Inscriptions

lower right below hand: V. [C]OLONNA

Wikidata ID

Q18397538

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