(Urbino 1535–1612)
Head study of a young girl,
oil on panel, 43.4 x 33.7 cm, framed

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 a private European collection;
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 21 October 2014, lot 62;
where acquired by 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

At the time of the 2014 sale Andrea Emiliani assisted in cataloguing this lot.

The present painting is related to Federico Barocci’s celebrated altarpiece with the Sette Opere di Misericordia, known as the Madonna del Popolo, in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence painted in the 1570s for the chapel of the Fraternità dei Laici in Santa Maria della Pieve, Arezzo (see fig. 1).

The girl’s features in the present painting closely resemble those of a girl depicted in the altarpiece, next to the kneeling woman drawing the children together in prayer. The orientation of the girl’s face has been redrawn by the artist; in the final work, he chose to alter her pose to position her close to the face of the woman instructing her, with her eyes downcast. Barocci produced other studies and bozzetti for this altarpiece, experimenting with the composition and with the figure poses some of which survive today (British Museum, London; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence; Kupferstichkabinett, Berlin). Indeed at the 2014 sale the present panel was offered alongside another head study, the second of the Due Testine which also relate to the Madonna del Popolo. The study of the young woman in profile corresponds directly with the figure on the far left of the altarpiece (see fig. 2).

The present painting clearly possesses all the characteristics of Barocci’s expert, meticulous execution. The vivacious eyes of the young girl are turned directly towards the viewer who the girl seems to be observing, rather than simply posing for the artist, suggesting, as Emiliani observered, that this painting may be a portrait rather than a simple head study. This would imply that she was the daughter of an important noble family, or perhaps a young member of the Urbino court. In her smile we can well read the affection which Barocci would habitually confer to his figures. We sense here a dimension of ‘Christian joy’, which Barocci encountered at Filippo Neri’s Chiesa Nuova, and the sentimental aspects which he portrayed in his favourite themes of family, maternity and community.