Portrait of a Young Woman as a Saint

The specificity of the portrayal of this young woman and her contemporary attire in combination with the faint remains of a halo indicate that either this is a depiction of a saint based on a close study of a living model to give force to the rendering or it is a portrait of a young woman in the guise of a saint as an expression of piety. Given that there are no further attributes to identify the woman as a particular saint other than her book, surely to be understood as a prayer book, this is most likely a portrait of a young woman of Bologna, the northern Italian city where Aspertini was active. In terms of style, the characterization of the young woman is quite close to similar figures in Aspertini’s Altarpiece with the Virgin and Child, Saints Lucy, Nicolas of Bari, and Augustine (1510) in the church of San Martino Maggiore, Bologna.

Inscription

Provenance

Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object.

Bentivoglio Collection, Casa Bentivoglio, Bologna [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; J. Hanson-Walker, London, 1894 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Private collection, England [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Sale, Christie's, London, December 10, 1898, no. 65; Jeffrey, London [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Friedrich Lippmann, Berlin [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Rudolph Lepke Sale, Berlin, November 26-27, 1912, no. 34 [as Lorenzo Costa]; Arnold Seligmann, Rey and Co., Munich and New York [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [published in Zeri: Italian Paintings in the Walters Art Gallery: II as A. S. Drey]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, prior to 1922 [mode of acquisition unknown]; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.