(Bologna 1552–1614 Rome)
Portrait of a noblewoman with maid and small dog,
oil on unlined canvas, 113 x 92 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Spinola family, Castello di Pasturana, Piedmont (19th century);
sold to Emilia Balduino on 13th June 1933;
by descent to the present owner

We are grateful to Maria Teresa Cantaro for confirming the attribution of the present painting after inspection of the original.

The present painting is a characteristic work by Lavinia Fontana and Cantaro has dated it to Fontana´s Roman period between 1604 and1614. It shows the artist’s typical soft colours with a meticulous sense of drawing and detail. The picture represents a lady, with a servant to her left and next to her, on a table, a little dog, which the lady caresses with her right hand. Facing the spectator, the sitter exhibits her personality and social status. She wears a silvery-white undergarment, the sleeves of which are embroidered with golden threads, and a dark cloak, which only reveals the undergarment in the area of the sleeves and through slits in the area of the chest. Her hair is combed back, and she wears pearl earrings, a single string of pearls around her neck, and a ring on the small finger of her right hand. In her left hand, she holds a pair of gloves. This very detail, as well as the dog, a symbol of connubial fidelity, alludes to the lady´s married status.

With the introduction of the servant Lavinia Fontana has succeeded in lending this aristocratic portrait a folkloristic, or even domestic element, which was mainly known from Northern Italian genre painting. The figure of the servant recurs in several portraits by the Bolognese artist, such as in Self-Portrait at the Harpsichord with a Servant from 1577 (Galleria dell’Accademia di San Luca, Rome) or in Judith and Holofernes from 1600 (now in the Museo Davia Bargellini, Bologna).

The depiction of aged women was part of the artist’s repertory and can also be found in paintings like The Holy Family with Saints John and Elizabeth (Galleria Borghese, Rome, and a further version in the Stockholm National Museum, both of which date from 1600). The same type of a female figure appears in the Birth of the Virgin (SS. Trinità, Bologna) from 1590. However, the sharp realism in the execution of the present figure suggests that the present painting dates from a later period and was made in Rome, where the influence of Caravaggio had already achieved recognition with his dry, realistic style. Lavinia arrived in Rome in 1604 in order to complete the altarpiece of The Stoning of Saint Stephen for the church of San Paolo fuori le Mura.

In Rome, Fontana, who was held in high esteem by her contemporaries, became a popular and successful portraitist. Baglione reports that the majority of the Roman aristocrats and cardinals had their portraits painted by her, which ensured her high reputation and great fame. The present portrait may be one of these.

The painting might also have been commissioned by the Spinola family, who owned it until 1933, when the Castello di Pasturana and its contents were sold to Emilia Balduino, the wife of the Marchese Gavotti. We know that at least one painting by Lavinia Fontana, Saint Francis Worshipping the Cross (today in a private collection, in Milan) that was originally in the Spinola Collection.

The present painting seems to have been conceived as a pendant to lot 87, since both paintings display the same figurative style. They may possibly show the same sitter at different periods of time.

We are grateful to Maria Teresa Cantaro for her help in cataloguing the present lot.