Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 13

Portrait Lady Pulzone Paint Oil on canvas Old master 16th Century Italian Roma

1550-1620

About the Item

Scipione Pulzone, called Il Gaetano (Gaeta 1544 - Rome 1598) - workshop of Portrait of Bianca Cappello (Venice, 1548 - 1587) Grand Duchess of Tuscany, second wife of Francesco I de 'Medici Second half of the 16th century oil on canvas, cm. 70 x 56 cm., Framed 103 x 87 cm. The proposed painting illustrates the portrait of Bianca Cappello (Venice, 1548 - 1587), a noblewoman of Venetian origins, second wife of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Francesco I de 'Medici, whose expressive power is wisely highlighted by the composite cut of light three quarters, with the head and gaze directed at the observer. The beam of light coming from her right brings out the volumes of her face plastically and lingers on her features, highlighted by the large white lace ruff that surrounds his neck and by the details of her precious clothing. Bianca wears a dark red dress, perhaps a zimarra, embroidered in gold with a plunging neckline and a raised collar of the shirt curled in a ruff and also edged with precious lace, embroidered with the motif of the Florentine lily.   The favorite jewels of the noblewoman were pearls: we see them on a choker that adorns the neckline, in the earrings and again in the hairstyle, which sees the hair gathered at the nape of the neck and adorned with a string of small black pearls and embellished with a clasp. It is a high-quality painting that can be confined to the workshop of the painter Scipione Pulzone called Gaetano, representing at best a pictorial genre, that of portraiture, in which the master excelled. This attribution would be confirmed by comparisons with the numerous portraits that Pulzone dedicated to the Medici family. Our painting, in particular, could represent one of the versions that the workshop has replicated, at the request of the numerous art collectors who wish to have a portrait of one of the most influential personalities of the Florentine scene. The characters drawn by Pulzone were icons of incomparable elegance: noblewomen, knights and religious lent their faces to the eye of the artist who was able to grasp every meticulous detail with his superb technique. A photographic wealth and surprising material attention that trace the pictorial prototypes of Flemish inspiration, in particular of Antonis Mor (Utrecht 1520 - Antwerp 1578), who also worked in Rome, and who gave Pulzone the nickname of “Van Dyck of the Roman school ". The portraits of him are capable of highlighting the characteristic signs of the exercise of power, both in clothes and attributes, and in the expression of the face and pose. Aristocrats appear to us as figures fully aware of their social status and, even if in their static and hieratic nature, they may seem cold or impersonal at first glance, they emanate the subtle charm of a "timeless" art. Documented for the first time in Rome in 1562, Pulzone soon came into contact with the most important aristocratic families of the second half of the sixteenth century, becoming the official portraitist of the nobility and the ecclesiastical leadership of the city. The first to appreciate his skills as a portraitist was Marcantonio II Colonna, winner of the battle of Lepanto against the Turks (1571). It was he who opened the doors to the great Roman families, which was followed by the assignments at the Medici in Florence. The former in chronological order are characterized by an optical and lenticular investigation, by a lucid focus on the details, applied both to the faces and to the clothes through a vitreous pictorial material. There is no doubt that the technical skill of Cajetan, who in some cases reaches mimetic excellence, has contributed to his fame. The closer one gets to the final years, the more this characteristic loses consistency and not only in the portraits he turns towards a realism of more immediate human contact, to which our portrait seems to adhere. In exceptionally good condition, the present painting is complete with a beautiful ebonized 'wave' frame in Flemish style.
  • Creation Year:
    1550-1620
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 40.56 in (103 cm)Width: 34.26 in (87 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Circle Of:
    Scipione Pulzone, called Il Gaetano (Gaeta 1544 - Rome 1598) (1544 - 1598, Italian)
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Riva del Garda, IT
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU98819623122

More From This Seller

View All
Saint Michael Archangel 17th Century Paint Oil on canvas Lombard School
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
17th century Lombard painter Saint Michael Archangel Oil on canvas 139 x 75 cm. - Framed 156 x 91 cm Antique painting with St. Michael the Archangel, immortalised full-length as a ...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Holy Family Piola Paint Oil on canvas Old master 17th Century Maria Religious
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
Genoese school of the second half of the seventeenth century Circle of Domenico Piola (Genoa 1627-1703) The Holy Family Oil painting on canvas 83 x 68 cm. - in an antique frame 99 x...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Guardian Angel Ferri 17/18th Century Paint Oil on canvas Old master Roman school
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
Roman painter, 17th-18th century Ciro Ferri (Rome, 1634 - Rome, 1689) follower of The Guardian Angel (Tobiolo with the archangel Raphael) Oil on tea 100 x 75 cm. in antique frame 1...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Venus Love Guercino 17th Century Paint Oil on canvas Old master Emilian school
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
Giovanni Francesco Barbieri, the Guercino (Cento 1591 - Bologna 1666), workshop Attributable to, Benedetto Gennari (Cento, 1633 - Bologna, 1715) Venus disarming Love oil on canvas ...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Portrait Paint Oil on canvas Old master 16/17th Century Italian Raffaello Art
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
Tuscan painter active towards the end of the 16th century Portrait of Captain Niccolò Orsini (Pitigliano, 1442 - Lonigo, 1510), count of Pitigliano and Nola. Tuscany, end of the 16th century Oil on canvas, 64 x 47 cm., Framed 89 x 73 cm. The portrait we present to you shows the effigy of a vigorous high-ranking male figure in armor, in the most typical Renaissance pose, half-length and taken in profile, with his face and gaze turned to the side; the serious and intense expression and the facial features evoke at first glance the portraiture of early Florentine mannerism. He is Niccolò III Orsini (Pitigliano, 1442 - Lonigo, 1510), count of Pitigliano and Nola and son of Aldobrandino Orsini, famous leader and captain (or capitano di ventura) who lived between the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, who served for the state Pontifical in Naples and Florence and above all for the Republic of Venice. Portraiture with these characters, which derives from ancient coinage, was used in the sixteenth century in the sequences of Portraits of Illustrious Men, both in painting and in sculpture. The profile portrait was in fact a genre reserved, according to the Renaissance tradition, for celebrations, presenting those characteristics of imperturbability typical of the military role covered. Our painting is a work created by an author active in Tuscany towards the end of the sixteenth century, adhering to those pictorial styles made famous by the portraitist Cristofano di Papi dell'Altissimo (1530-1605), a pupil of Bronzino and then of Pontormo, known for having created a collection of about 500 portraits of illustrious men, known as the 'Gioviana Series' (now in the Uffizi Gallery); and among these it is possible to identify one dedicated to Niccolò Orsini. Our painting is inspired, in particular, by a print taken from the collection of prints...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

Pietà Cherubs Paint Oil on canvas Religious Rome 16/17th Century Michelangelo
Located in Riva del Garda, IT
Peintre actif à Rome au XVIe siècle - entourage de Scipione Pulzone (Gaeta 1550 - Rome 1598) La Pietà (Christ mort soutenu par la Madone) huile sur t...
Category

16th Century Old Masters Paintings

Materials

Oil

You May Also Like

Escuela española (XIX) - Óleo sobre tela - Retrato de gentilhombre
Located in Sant Celoni, ES
La obra va sin firmar La obra se presenta enmarcada Medidas obra: 60 x 46 cm. Medidas obra: 76 x 64 cm. Estado aceptable aunque si comentar que la tela está reentelada y en la pa...
Category

Mid-19th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil

Early Historical Portrait Believed to be of Scottish Politician David Carnegie
By John Baptist De Medina
Located in Houston, TX
Early historical portrait in the style of William Aikman believed to be of David Carnegie, 4th Earl of Northesk, a Scottish peer and politician. The work features the central figure ...
Category

Early 1700s Old Masters Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

A Rich Merchant - Painting by Unknown - 18th Century
Located in Roma, IT
A rich merchant is an original old master artwork realized in the 18th Century. Mixed colored oil painting on canvas depicting a merchant looking at a coin in his left hand. Provena...
Category

18th Century Old Masters Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

Cardinal with Missive - Painting by Unknown - 17th Century
Located in Roma, IT
Cardinal with missive is an original old master artwork realized in the 17th Century. Mixed colored oil painting on canvas. Provenance: Italy. Avery precoius artwork depicting a ca...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Figurative Paintings

Materials

Oil

19th century English Portrait of a Young boy in a Cavalier costume
Located in Woodbury, CT
This elegant English 19th-century portrait of a young boy dressed in a Cavalier costume, painted circa 1860, is a striking example of Victorian portraiture that seamlessly combines h...
Category

1860s Old Masters Portrait Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

Portrait of a Gentleman, David Erskine, 13th Laird of Dun, Wearing Armour c.1700
Located in London, GB
The gentleman in this exquisite oil on canvas portrait, presented by Titan Fine Art, is shown with the grandiloquence characteristic of the English School of painting. He is portray...
Category

17th Century Old Masters Portrait Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Recently Viewed

View All