(Gae 1550–1658 Rome)
Portrait of Lucrezia Tomacelli,
oil on canvas, 62 x 50 cm, unframed

The present portrait depicts Lucrezia Tomacelli Colonna (Naples 1576–1622 Genazzano), daughter of Girolamo Tomacelli, Duke of Galatro and Ippolita Ruffo (cf. P. Colonna, I Colonna: sintesi storico illustrativa, Rome 2010, p 10, 143–144, 147, 218); who married Filippo I. Colonna in 1597 (Rome 1578–1639). A comparison with two other portraits in the Colonna Collection in Rome makes it easy to identify the sitter. One portrait, attributed to Van Dyck (cf. E. Safarik, Galleria Colonna, Rome 1981, p 63, No. 66, ill. 66), is in the Sala della Colonna Bellica, the other in the Sala del Baldacchino at the residence of Princess Isabelle. This was previously attributed to Frans Pourbus the Younger and published by Francesco Solinas as a work by Ottavio Leonis, dated to ca. 1608 (cf. F. Solinas, Ottavio Leoni (1578–1630); Les portraits de Berlin, Rome 2013, p 20–21, ill. 12; P. Colonna, I Colonna, Rome 2010, p 146).

The present painting was created at an earlier date than the two versions mentioned above and can be attributed to an artist from the workshop of Scipione Pulzone, when the latter was employed as a portrait painter by the Princes Colonna.

The present portrait depicts Lucrezia Tomacelli Colonna (Naples 1576–1622 Genazzano), the daughter of Girolamo Tomacelli, Duke of Galatro and Ippolita Ruffo (cf. P. Colonna, I Colonna: sintesi storico illustrativa, Rome 2010, p 10, 143–144, 147, 218);