Provenance

Leopold Wilhelm, Archduke of Austria

Austria, Leopold Wilhelm, Archduke of

Austrian, 1614 - 1662

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Shown from the waist up behind a stone ledge, a young woman nestles a nude baby against her chest in this vertical painting. Both have pale skin with a slight, rosy blush on their cheeks, and both have halos painted as delicate gold rings around their heads. The woman’s shoulders are angled to our left, and she looks down at the baby in that direction with hooded eyes. She has a slender face, a long, straight nose, smooth cheeks, and her pale pink lips are closed. The neckline and the cuffs of her garnet-red, gold-edged gown peek out from beneath a dark, spruce-blue mantle that covers her head and wraps around her body. She rests the baby along the stone ledge and holds him in the crook of her right elbow, to our left. In her other hand, she holds a small object, perhaps an apple. The baby also touches the fruit as he lies back along her arm. He has curly, ash-blond hair, a petite nose, and chubby cheeks. He looks up at the woman or beyond her with parted, downturned lips. The pair are warmly lit from the upper left and set against a fern and olive-green landscape. Near the left edge of the painting, a church and steeple are silhouetted along the horizon, which comes just under halfway up the composition. In the sky above, a clear, pale blue horizon gives way first to puffy, cream-white clouds and then swirling clouds in tones of pine green and slate gray along the top of the picture. An inscription appears on the lower center of the ledge, “IDEM Z.B.”
Giovanni Bellini, Madonna and Child in a Landscape, c. 1480/1485, oil on panel, Ralph and Mary Booth Collection, 1946.19.1

Madonna and Child in a Landscape

Giovanni Bellini · c. 1480/1485 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1946.19.1

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a voluminous, gold-trimmed, white satin gown and a black overdress stands holding a closed fan in this vertical portrait painting. Her body and face are angled to our right, and she looks at us from the corners of her gray eyes. She has pale skin, a straight nose, thin lips, and a slight double chin. Chin-length brown waves frame her face, and the rest of her hair is pulled back. A pearl necklace lies at the base of her neck, though traces of another necklace, originally painted higher up on the neck like a choker, are visible. A lace-edged collar lies along her shoulders, and more lace lines a kerchief tucked into the low, straight neckline of her bodice. The gown’s puffy sleeves are tied around the elbows and end in wide lace-lined cuffs at the wrists. The sleeves and the front and bottom edges of the bodice are lined in glittery gold. A bejeweled gold brooch nestled in black lace is pinned to the front of her gown. A gold chain links the brooch to one side of the bodice before draping across her chest and lying over the other shoulder. A white satin ribbon is tied with a bow around her waist over the black overdress, which has subtle suggestions of a black-on-black pattern down the front. The fan is in her left hand, to our right, perhaps attached to a length of gold chain visible under her wrist. Her other hand rests in the folds of the black overdress. Some brushstrokes are visible in the woman’s clothing and in the walnut-brown background.
Sir Anthony van Dyck, Lady with a Fan, c. 1628, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957.14.1

Lady with a Fan

Sir Anthony van Dyck · c. 1628 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1957.14.1

This painting shows a man from the knees up, seated and facing slightly to the right. He has pale skin, short, curly dark hair, a thin moustache, and a goatee. His expression is neutral as he gazes at us. He wears a dark red garment with voluminous sleeves, with a shining, polished gray breastplate over it. Draped over his shoulder and around his back is a light green cloak, and his legs also have silvery armor. In his left hand, he holds a long wooden staff. His other hand is raised, his fingers curled. He is positioned near a stone column or wall on the left, with a background on the right depicting a distant landscape under a blue sky, with blue fields and structures in the distance.
Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, Portrait of a Knight, c. 1525, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.74

Portrait of a Knight

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo · c. 1525 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.74