Portrait of the Marchioness Angela Maria Lombardi

Description Angela Maria Lercari was born in Genoa in 1684 and married Marquis Anton Filippo Lombardi in 1704. The marchioness wears a splendid costume that enhances her beauty and marks her social status. Her "mantua" (a one-piece open robe) is made of a sky-blue silk damask brocaded in silver and trimmed in the finest lace. The so-called "bizarre" pattern of the damask, produced in France and Italy, was highly fashionable around 1700. The Latin inscription along the edges, possibly a later addition, cites her birth date, family relations, and Christian virtues. The attention to detail is remarkable but has not led to the identification of the artist. For more information on this portrait, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 388, pp. 502-504.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
4/01/1937	Treatment	examined for condition; loss compensation; surface cleaned; varnish removed or reduced
4/14/1937	Treatment	coated; surface cleaned
7/28/1971	Treatment	examined for condition; examined for loan; inpainted; loss compensation; surface cleaned; x-ray
6/12/1992	Examination	examined for loan
9/21/1998	Examination	examined for loan

Exhibitions

• Reopening of the Costume Institute Galleries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 1992-1993.
• An Exhibition of the Treasures of The Walters Art Gallery. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore; Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton; Pace Wildenstein Gallery, New York. 1967.
• Ambiente Barocco: Life and the Arts in the Baroque Palaces of Rome. The Bard Graduate Center, New York; The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City. 1999.

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 772, as French School]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Inscriptions [Transcription] Around the perimeter: MARCHIONISSA ANGELA MA FILA IONIS THOM. URBIS CONSERVATORIS PATRIT GENU | NAT AN. 1684 NICOLAI ME S.R.E. CARD.IS LERCARI SOROR ANT.II FILIP.I LOMBARDI PATRIT.I ROM.I ET GENU... UXOR | FORTIS MULIER PIETATE IN DEU AMORE IN LIBEROS | CHARITATE IN PAUPERES PRAECLARA. VIVAT DIU; [Translation] The Marchioness Angela Maria, daughter of Giovanni Tommaso, Conservatore of Rome and Genoese nobleman. Born in the year 1684, sister of Nicola Maria Lercari, cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. Wife of Antonio Filippo Lombardi, Roman and Genoese nobleman. A woman of strong character, famous for her piety towards God, for her love towards her children, for her charity towards the poor. May she live long.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902