Gian Paolo Pace

Venetian, 1528 - 1560

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Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing rust-red gown under a sumptuous coat stands near a window, through which a sinking ship is shown in this vertical portrait painting. The woman’s body and head are angled to our right as she looks out at us with dark gray eyes. She has a nose with a rounded tip, a thin upper and full lower lip, and a slight double chin. Her red hair is pulled back and a braid wrapped around the back of her head. She wears a pearl and gemstone earring in the ear we see and a short, white pearl necklace. The bodice of her dress has a square neckline with black lines creating a vegetal pattern on the white fabric. That fabric continues up the sides of her chest and around her neck so a ruffle along the top flares out from her chin line. Letters along the inner edge of the fabric read “AV” to the left and “DIM+T” to the right. A gold jeweled belt encircles her waist, and one end hangs down the front of her long skirt, which is painted with a sheen suggesting velvet. The woman’s jacket is sand-brown, and it falls straight and heavy from her shoulders. The sides of the front opening, sleeves, and shoulders are decorated with knotted designs in brick red. Lace peeks out of each cuff, and the woman holds the coat belt loosely in her right hand, to our left. The wall behind her is dark stone, and her other hand rests on a stone ledge in front of the window. Through the opening is a stormy sky, choppy sea, and a masted ship listing hard to our left.
Titian, Gian Paolo Pace, Emilia di Spilimbergo, c. 1560, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.82

Emilia di Spilimbergo

Titian, Gian Paolo Pace · c. 1560 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.82

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned woman wearing a muted red gown and shimmering coat stands against a stone column in front of a landscape in this vertical portrait painting. Her body angles to our left, and she looks off in that direction with gray eyes under curved brows. She has a round face with a slightly snub nose, flushed cheeks, double chin, and her thin lips are closed. Her strawberry blond hair is pulled back under a band wrapped with pearls. Her copper-red dress has a square neckline lined with lace, and a gold and pearl belt is looped around her waist as a long strand lies down the front of her skirt and off the bottom edge of the canvas. The voluminous coat she wears has a high, flaring collar lined with lace or patterned with black lines against white. The pale, almost iridescent golden-red fabric of the coat has a sheen, suggesting satin or silk, and it is decorated down the front, over the shoulders, and down the sleeves with a geometric design in copper red. The cuffs of the coat are lined with lace, and the woman wears a gold and silver earring in the ear we see and a strand of white pearls around her neck. The woman drapes her left arm, to our right, over the chest-high base of the column, and holds a ring of leaves in that hand. The other hand is by her side as she holds the coat belt to curve like a swag across her body. A pair of palm fronds feather out against the column that fills the right half of the background. A deep landscape on the left half has rolling hills, trees, and mountains reaching back to the horizon under a sky with puffy white clouds. A white unicorn lies on one hill and a dog chases an animal farther back. Beyond that, a person walking along a path back may carry a sack. The tonalities of the whole painting are shaded yellow, and some areas of the woman’s face and neck are in-painted in slightly different shades of pale peach. An inscription carved into the base of the column reads, “SI FATA TVLISSENT.”
Titian, Gian Paolo Pace, Irene di Spilimbergo, c. 1560, oil on canvas, Widener Collection, 1942.9.83

Irene di Spilimbergo

Titian, Gian Paolo Pace · c. 1560 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1942.9.83

North Italian 16th Century, Gian Paolo Pace, Alessandro Alberti with a Page, possibly 1544/1545, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.5.80

Alessandro Alberti with a Page

North Italian 16th Century, Gian Paolo Pace · possibly 1544/1545 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1952.5.80