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Portrait of the Marchioness Angela Maria Lombardi
(Baroque Europe )
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.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.
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.
Exhibitions
| 1999 | 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. |
| 1967 | 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. |
| 1992-1993 | Reopening of the Costume Institute Galleries. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. |
Conservation
| Date | Description | Narrative |
|---|---|---|
| 4/1/1937 | 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 |
Geographies
Italy, Rome (Place of Origin)
Measurements
Painted surface H of oval: 40 15/16 x W: 31 7/8 in. (104 x 81 cm); Stretcher H: 41 1/8 x W: 32 1/16 in. (104.5 x 81.4 cm); Framed H: 50 7/8 × W: 41 13/16 × D: 4 in. (129.22 × 106.2 × 10.16 cm)
Credit Line
Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.400