(Florence 1532–1592)
Portrait of a lady with a lap dog,
oil on panel, 86 x 67 cm, framed

We are grateful to Marta Privitera for identifying the present painting as an autograph work by Girolamo Macchietti. Enclosed with this painting is a certificate by Privitera.

Giacomo Macchietti is one of the refined Florentine artists who contributed to the Studiolo of Francesco I. According to Privitera, Macchietti’s authorship is visible in the roundness of the face, whose oval shape is created by the interplay of light and shadow, a whose radiance and smoothness echoes Bronzino’s paintings. The faces of Macchietti’s female figures are always characterised by perfect complexion, for example the figure of Medea in the Medea and Jason oval painting, c. 1572, preserved at the Studiolo of Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio, and the Heads of the Madonna and Saints from a slightly earlier date, such as the Head of the Madonna and Child with St Anne at the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. Light performs an important function in the present painting: it highlights the lady’s face against the dark background, creating depth. Light also contributes to the creation of naturalist effects, such as the depiction of the head’s shadow on the pristine white ruff. Macchietti is one of the few Florentine painters who, in the 1570s, developed a profound interest in the study of light, following the example of Bronzino. Similarities with the present painting can be detected in, among others, the Portrait of Young Lady at the Seattle Art Museum and the Portrait of a Young Man Holding a Letter in a private collection, as well as the painter’s large altar pieces, such as Madonna della Cintola in the Church of Sant’ Agata, Florence, and the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence in Santa Maria Novella, executed in 1573. Also typical of Macchietti’s painting style is his use of neat, precise outlines to define the head’s oval shape, the ears and hands, as well as the magnificent garment. The same special care taken in the reproduction of the texture of the cloth is also visible in the Portrait of Young Lady in Seattle. Privitera dates the present painting to the 1570s. This is also suggested by the lace collar, an element derived from Spanish fashion that established itself in Florence in the last decades of the 16th century, in the austere climate of the Counter-Reformation.