Portrait of a Lady

Description This unidentified, fashionably dressed lady wishes to be represented, above all, as a student of ancient culture. On the table next to a sheet of music is a cabinet with casts of ancient carved gems, which were often collected along with-or instead of-the actual gems; for the serious student, even one such as the sitter who is armed with a magnifying glass, casts bring out details that hard to see in the original carving. Also, they could be duplicated as a set for those with scholarly interests but without the means to acquire the originals. In addition, the lady wears a portrait miniature of a gentleman (her deceased husband, father, or teacher?). The portrait is painted in the new neoclassical style, which emphasizes clearly delineated forms. For more information on this portrait, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 428, pp. 539-540.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
12/31/1969	Treatment	filled; inpainted; lined; varnish removed or reduced; x-ray
7/28/1971	Treatment	filled; lined; stabilized
11/01/2001	Treatment	coated; filled; lined; loss compensation; surface cleaned; varnish removed or reduced
11/27/2001	Examination	examined for condition

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 813, as Portrait of a Daughter of Pilker, French School]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Transcription] On the sheet of music: QUELL' OCCHIETTO LANG[UIDO] NON MI; [Translation] that languid little eye, not to me

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902