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Shown from the chest up on the far side of a narrow ledge, a woman wearing an elaborate headdress and gown faces our left in profile in this vertical portrait painting. Her pale-peach skin is smooth with little shading around the features. The hazel eye we see is heavy-lidded under a thin, arched brow. The woman has a notably high forehead and a sloped nose. Her lips are closed over a knobby chin and fleshy jawline. Her hair is gathered up in a fine gold net under a twisted, ring-like headdress held in place with long gold pins. The fabric of the headdress alternates between twists of parchment brown or light brown patterned with red or darker brown leaf patterns. A network of muted blue dots encircled with gold does not quite line up with the headdress it overlays. The high collar of the woman’s peacock-blue dress flares up the back of her head over a white collar that curls away along either side of her chin. The garment is covered with flowers and stems outlined in gold. There are thick gold bands at her neck and around her waist. A chain made up of two strands of gold orbs like oversized beads hangs from the shoulder closer to us and then wraps around her body. A gold pendant near her neck may be two chain links or a thin letter B. Light glints off the ledge along the bottom of the painting, and the background is inky black.

Franco-Flemish 15th Century

Profile Portrait of a Lady, c. 1410

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 39

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

painted surface: 52 × 36.6 cm (20 1/2 × 14 7/16 in.)
overall (panel): 53 × 37.6 cm (20 7/8 × 14 13/16 in.)

framed: 74.3 × 61.3 × 7 cm (29 1/4 × 24 1/8 × 2 3/4 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.23

Artists / Makers

Franco-Flemish 15th Century (painter)

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Provenance

Henry Valentine Stafford Jerningham, 9th Baron of Stafford [d. 1884]; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 30 May 1885, no. 373, as Blanche, daughter of Henry IV of England). James Gurney; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 12 March 1898, no. 7, as Blanche, daughter of Henry IV of England); Cooper.[1] M. de Villeroy, Paris; (sequestered property sale, Galérie Georges Petit, Paris, 28-29 April 1922, no. 34, as School of Vienna, Portrait of a Lady);[2] (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); sold 1923 to Clarence H. Mackay [1874-1938], Roslyn, New York; repurchased 1935 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York); purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] The Getty Provenance Index lists a buyer named Cooper who purchased the work at the 1898 Christie's sale, according to the J. Paul Getty Museum's copy of the auction catalogue.

[2] According to the Getty Provenance Index, the Villeroy sale was held at Armand, Paris, rather than at Galérie Georges Petit. The Getty Museum's copy of the auction catalogue lists the buyer as Paul Jonas. However, Duveen Brothers was in possession of the work within the year of the Villeroy sale (perhaps Jonas was an agent for Duveen).

[3] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Cooper
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Galerie Georges Petit
Gurney, James
Mackay, Clarence H.
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Stafford, Sir Henry V.S. Jerningham, 9th Baron of
Villeroy, M. de

Exhibition History

1922: Loan for display with permanent collection, Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1922.

1924: Loan Exhibition of Important Early Italian Paintings in the Possession of Notable American Collectors, Duveen Brothers, New York, 1924, no. 17, as by Pisanello (no. 38, as by Antonio Pisano, in illustrated 1926 version of catalogue).

1935: Fifteenth Century Portraits, M. Knoedler & Co. Inc., New York, 1935, no. I, as Isotta degli Atti, wife of Sigismondo Malatesta da Rimini by Pisanello.

2001: Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's 'Ginevra de' Benci' and Renaissance Portraits of Women, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 2001-2002, no. 1, color repro.

2008: El retrato del Renacimiento [Madrid title], Renaissance Faces: Van Eyck to Titian [London title], Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid; National Gallery, London, 2008-2009, no. 7 (Madrid), no. 1 (London), repro.

2010: The Art of Illumination: The Limbourg Brothers and the Belles Heures of Jean de France, Duc de Berry, The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (2008-2009); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2010, not in cat. (shown only in New York).

Technical Summary

The panel supporting the paint surface has been thinned, set into another panel with a 5 mm rim all around, and then cradled. The panel supporting the paint surface has an old, repaired split running from the bottom edge up through the hat to the right of center. Although the present painted surface comes to the edge of this panel, what appear to be the original ground and support occupy a slightly smaller area (48.6 - 48.8 x 31.7 - 32.1 cm) clearly visible in the x-radiograph. The pronounced horizontal crackle within this smaller area does not extend beyond its borders. This crackle pattern and the tear-like appearance of another disturbed area at the bottom left, visible in the x-radiograph, suggest that the ground may have been laid on paper or parchment.

Infrared reflectography reveals what appears to be an underdrawn design delineating the ear, some hairpins, and individual strands of hair in the coil over the lady's ear. These delicate strands follow the line of the coil, rather than forming the horizontal bands of crimping visible on the surface. Traces of an underdrawn brocade pattern were also detected in the robe during examination with infrared reflectography.

Microscopic examination shows extensive repaint.[1] The profile and the eye, nostril, lips, and ear have been repainted, though they seem to correspond to the old outline visible underneath. The gold of the pins is repaint. The hat is totally repainted over heavy damage. The back of the coiffure is totally repainted. The white fur and collar appear to be old, but with some repainted areas. Whereas most of the gold on the robe is new, the abraded blue of the robe is apparently not repainted except for a damage in the left corner. Most of the gold on the beads is new, yet there are residues of old gold underneath. The necklace and belt are apparently made of metallic foil, possibly attached by small nails or brads in the case of the necklace. There are scattered damages in the background, which appears to have been entirely toned over to bring it into conformity with what are presumably later additions at left, right, and top edges.

[1] The paint has not been analyzed to determine whether it is oil or tempera based. However, the present paint layer appears to be oil based, with the texture of the white paint in the hair suggesting the use of an emulsion medium there, according to Kay Silberfeld who undertook the technical examination of the painting.

Bibliography

1923: Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 8(1927):104-105, 152, 206.

1924: Offner, Richard. "A Remarkable Exhibition of Italian Paintings." The Arts 5 (1924): 257, repro. 259.

1925: Valentiner, Wilhelm R. "The Clarence H. Mackay Collection." International Studio 81 (1925): 335-337, repro.

1925: Venturi, Adolfo. "Antonio Pisano of Verona, called Pisanello." The Connoisseur 71 (1925): 196-197, repro. 199.

1925: Venturi, Adolfo. Grandi artisti italiani. Bologna, 1925: 222-226, fig. 77.

1925: Venturi, Adolfo. "Per il Pisanello." L'Arte 28 (1925): 36-37, fig. 1.

1926: Valentiner, Wilhelm R. The Clarence H. Mackay Collection. New York, 1926: 1-2, no. 1, as by Pisanello, repro.

1929: Cortissoz, Royal. "The Clarence H. Mackay Collection." International Studio 94 (1929): 32-33.

1929: Hill, George F. Dessins de Pisanello. Paris and Brussels, 1929: 13.

1929: Richter, George Martin. "Pisanello Studies-II." The Burlington Magazine 55 (1929): 139.

1929: Singleton, Esther. Old World Masters in New World Collections. New York, 1929: 99-103, repro.

1930: Martinie, A.-H. Pisanello. Paris, 1930: 25-26, 30, pl. 12.

1930: Valentiner, Wilhelm R., ed. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. London, 1930: n.p., pl. 9.

1931: Venturi, Adolfo. North Italian Painting of the Quattrocento. Emilia. Florence and New York, 1931: 17-18, pl. 5.

1932: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford, 1932: 462.

1933: Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. Translated by Countess Vanden Heuvel and Charles Marriott. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 1:not paignated, pl. 128.

1937: Cortissoz, Royal. An Introduction to the Mellon Collection. Boston, 1937: 16.

1937: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "New Items in the Mellon Collection." Art News 35 (13 February, 1937): 11, repro. 9.

1937: Pantheon 19 (1937): 129, repro.

1940: Degenhart, Bernhard. Antonio Pisanello. Vienna, 1940: 38, fig. 4 (2d ed. Turin, 1945: 39-40, 69, pl. 4.).

1941: Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 27, repro., as by Pisanello.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 157, no. 23, as by Pisanello.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 170, as by Pisanello.

1945: "Italian Paintings in the Andrew W. Mellon Collection." Connoisseur 115 (1945): repro. 113.

1947: Berenson, Bernard. Letter to Max J. Friedländer. In Maandblad voor beeldende kunsten 23, no. 5 (1947): 100-101, repro.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): xi, 13, repro., as by Pisanello.

1949: Ring, Grete. A Century of French Painting 1400-1500. London, 1949: 199, no. 64, pl. 27.

1949: Sterling, Charles. Les peintres primitifs. Paris, 1949: 24, fig. 19.

1951: Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 52-54, repro., as by Pisanello.

1952: Brenzoni, Raffaello. Pisanello pittore. Florence, 1952: 186-188, pl. 76.

1952: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 40, color repro., as by Pisanello.

1953: Panofsky Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting: Its Origins and Character. 2 vols. Cambridge, Mass., 1953: 1:82, 171, 392 note 2; 2: pl. 43, fig. 92.

1956: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 8, repro., as by Pisanello.

1957: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 55.

1958: Coletti, Luigi. Pisanello. Milan, 1958: 28, no. 23, pl. 39.

1959: Sterling, Charles. "La peinture de portrait à la cour de Bourgogne au début du XVe siècle." Critica d'Arte 6 (1959): 289, 299, 304, 306, 308, 312, fig. 193.

1959: Winkler, Friedrich. "Ein frühfranzösisches Marienbild." Jahrbuch der königlich Preussischen Kunstsammlungen (Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen) 1 (1959): 188-189.

1960: Meiss, Millard, and Colin Eisler. "A New French Primitive." The Burlington Magazine 102 (1960): 234.

1961: Seligman, Germain. Merchants of Art 1880-1960. New York, 1961: 121.

1962: Sindona, Enio. Pisanello. Paris, 1962: 39-40, 123, pl. 137.

1963: Bauch, Kurt. "Bildnisse des Jan van Eyck." Sitzungsberichte der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. Jahresheft 1961/1962. Wiesbaden, 1963: 122. Repr. in Kurt Bauch, Studien zur Kunstgechichte. Berlin, 1967: 103.

1963: Châtelet, Albert, and Jacques Thuillier. French Painting from Fouquet to Poussin. Geneva, 1963: 29.

1963: Journet, René. "Deux retables du quinzième siècle à Ternant (Niévre)." Annales littéraires de l'Université de Besançon 49 (Archéologie 14) (1963): 10.

1963: Scheller, Robert W. A Survey of Medieval Model Books. Haarlem, 1963: 111.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 301, repro., as by Pisanello.

1964: Kreuter-Eggemann, Helga. Das Skizzenbuch des `Jaques Daliwe'. Munich, 1964: 32, fig. 41.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 51.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:72, color repro.

1966: Castelnuovo, Enrico. Il gotico internazionale in Francia e nei Paesi Bassi (I Maestri del Colore). Part 2, Milan, 1966: not paginated, pl. XIV.

1966: Laclotte, Michel. Primitifs français. Paris, 1966: 23, pl. 11.

1966: Troescher, Georg. Burgundische Malerei. Berlin, 1966: 82-84, 386, pls. 71, 72.

1967: Keller, Harald. Italien und die Welt der höfischen Gotik (Sitzungsberichte der wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft an der Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität Frankfurt/Main, 3, 1964). Wiesbaden, 1967: 20-21, fig. 15.

1968: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:349, as by Pisanello.

1968: Gandolfo, Giampaolo et al. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Great Museums of the World. New York, 1968: 24-25, color repro.

1968: Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Boucicaut Master. London, 1968: 153.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 45, repro.

1972: Bialostocki, Jan, et al. Spätmittelalter und beginnende Neuzeit (Propyläen Kunstgeschichte). Berlin, 1972: 189, no. 49, fig. 49.

1972: Chiarelli, Renzo. L'Opera completa del Pisanello. Milan, 1972: 96, no. 79, repro.

1974: Meiss, Millard. French Painting in the Time of Jean de Berry: The Limbourgs and their Contemporaries. New York, 1974: 228, 246-247, 281, 471, 474, fig. 606.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 134, repro.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 1250, no. 110, color repro.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 161, repro.

1986: Hand, John Oliver and Martha Wolff. Early Netherlandish Painting. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, 1986: 90-97, repro. 91.

2001: Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Exh. cat. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001-2002: no. 1.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 72-73, no. 53, color repro.

2006: Takács, Imre, ed. Sigismundus rex et imperator: Kunst und Kultur zur Zeit Sigismunds von Luxemburg 1387-1437. Exh. cat. Szépmüvészeti Múzeum, Budapest; Musée national d'histoire et d'art, Luxembourg. Mainz, 2006: 137, fig. 23 (French edition: 136-137, fig. 23).

2011: Rubin, Patricia. "Understanding Renaissance Portraits." In Keith Christiansen and Stefan Weppelmann, eds. The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini Keith Christiansen and Stefan Weppelmann. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Bode Museum, Berlin 2011: 21, 31, fig. 12.

2019: Der Meister von Heiligenkreuz. Exh. cat. Kunst Historisches Museum, Vienna. Vienna, 2019: 41 fig. 19, 42, 45 n. 50.