(Urbino 1535–1612)
Study of the head of a young woman,
oil on panel, 43.4 x 33.7 cm, framed

on the reverse: seal Boncompagni Ludovisi (upper left hand side) and remains of the seal Boncompagni Ruffo (lower right hand side)

Provenance:
Ugo Boncompagni, 4th Duke of Sora, Rome (1614–1676);
Gregorio II Boncompagni, 5th Duke of Sora and Arce, Rome (in 1701);
Antonio I Boncompagni, 6th Duke of Sora and Arce, Rome (1658-1721) after 1702 called Boncompagni Ludovisi;
thence by descent to the present owner

Documentation:
documented 1701, collection Gregorio Boncompagni Ludovisi “due teste del Barocci” on loan (see literature)
ASV, Archivio Boncompagni Ludovisi, Inventory of Gregorio Boncompagni 17th March 1707 (prot. 659, nr. 5) 42 /n.2 Quadri da mezza testa per alto con cornici dorate, rappresentanti due teste con busti di Donne al naturale dipinti in tavola

Literature:
A. G. De Marchi, Mostre di quadri a San Salvatore in Lauro : (1682–1725); stime di collezioni romane. Note e appunti di Giuseppe Ghezzi, Rome 1987, p. 150;

We are grateful to Andrea Emiliani for confirming the attribution.

The present painting is related to Federico Barocci´s important altarpiece with the Sette Opere di Misericordia, known as the Madonna del Popolo, (Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence) painted in the 1570s.

The girl’s features in the present painting closely recall those of the girl featured in the altarpiece, next to the kneeling woman intent on exhorting the youngsters at her side to draw their hands together in prayer, while she indicates the miraculous celestial apparition. The group is known from several preparatory drawings, including a sheet conserved at the Staatliche Museen in Berlin (inventory no. KdZ.6528, recto), but the orientation of the girl’s face has been rethought by the artist several times; in the final work, he chose to alter her pose to position her close to the face of the woman instructing her.

While it is not possible to establish clearer connections with other figures of young girls appearing in Barocci’s great public works, we can still recognise the present composition as the original and hitherto unknown prototype of this graceful portrait, which many artists would imitate after Barocci. One such painting is conserved in the Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna (inventory no. 131), while another strikingly similar piece is conserved at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, and a third has been traced by Federico Zeri to a private collection. While these derivatives conserve some of the sweetness and manner of Barocci’s style, none comes close in terms of quality to any of Barocci’s direct followers, let alone to the hand of the master himself. The present painting, on the other hand, clearly possesses all the characteristics of Barocci’s expert, meticulous execution; the artist seems consistently in his figures to command reality in a restless, vivacious manner, by means of an ever greater number of poses, gestures and display of emotion.

In the present compostion vivacious young eyes are turned directly towards the observer, yet she seems more intent to observe than simply to appear in an image. We might therefore suppose that this is a young family member of the Urbino court, in her smile of crystalline beauty we can well read that poetry of affection which Barocci would habitually confer upon his figures.

We sense here a dimension of “Christian joy”, which Barocci encountered at Filippo Neri’s Chiesa Nuova, and the sentimental aspects of which he manifested in his favourite theme of family, of maternity and of the community, in which the human figure emerges as a joyous nucleus of affections, expansiveness and body language.

We are grateful to Andrea Emiliani for his help in cataloguing the present painting.