Portrait of a Woman | Piero del Pollaiuolo (Piero di Jacopo Benci) | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Gallery LabelSome of the most distinguished female portraits produced in Florence in the third quarter of the fifteenth century seem to have originated in the workshop of Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo. The present portrait is ascribed to Piero del Pollaiuolo on the strength of its similarity to six panels of Virtues painted for the Mercanzia. The paint surface is much damaged, and the background, the dress, and the surrounding frame have been extensively restored.

NotesStylistically this painting closely resembles three other profile portraits attributed to the Pollaiuoli (Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan; Gemäldegalerie, Berlin; Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence).

According to Ref. Knoedler 1940, there was at that time an old exhibition label on the back of the panel, which read: "No. 70. A female head, most beautifully drawn, said to be the portrait of Beatrice, the mistress of Dante, and under that description formed a point of attraction in a distinguished exhibition in Paris."

A photograph of this work as it appeared in 1928 has an attribution to Domencio Veneziano written on the back [see archive file].

ProvenanceFrancis Richard Wemyss-Charteris-Douglas, 10th Earl of Wemyss and March, Gosford House, Longniddry, Haddingtonshire (by 1863–d. 1914); his son, Hugo Richard Wemyss-Charteris-Douglas, 11th Earl of Wemyss and March, Gosford House (1914–d. 1937); his son, Francis David Wemyss-Charteris-Douglas, 12th Earl of Wemyss and March, Gosford House (1937–38); [Knoedler, New York, 1939; sold to Harkness]; Edward S. Harkness, New York (1939–d. 1940; life interest to his widow, Mary Stillman Harkness, 1940–d. 1950)

Exhibition History

London. British Institution. 1863, no. 52.

London. Royal Academy of Arts. "Winter Exhibition," 1886, no. 172.

New York. M. Knoedler & Co.. "Italian Renaissance Portraits," March 18–April 6, 1940, no. 4.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Harkness Memorial Exhibition," October 12, 1951–January 1, 1952, no catalogue.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Art Treasures of the Metropolitan," November 7, 1952–September 7, 1953, no. 78.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Florentine Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum," June 15–August 15, 1971, no catalogue.

Washington. National Gallery of Art. "Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women," September 30, 2001–January 6, 2002, no. 6.

References

Georg Gronau. Journal entry. July 10, 1927 [see Ref. Harkness n.d.].

Excerpt from typed Harkness Catalogue. n.d.

Alfred M. Frankfurter. "Great Renaissance Portraits." Art News 38 (March 16, 1940), pp. 6–8, ill.

Italian Renaissance Portraits. Exh. cat., M. Knoedler & Co. New York, 1940, p. 7, no. 4, fig. 4.

Attilio Sabatini. Antonio e Piero del Pollaiolo. Florence, 1944, p. 78.

H[enry]. L[a]. F[arge]. "In the Harkness Manner." Art News 50 (October 1951), p. 43, ill. (before and after restoration).

"Illustrations of Outstanding Harkness Gifts." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 10 (October 1951), p. 56, ill. p. 61.

Art Treasures of the Metropolitan: A Selection from the European and Asiatic Collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1952, p. 224, no. 78, colorpl. 78.

Theodore Rousseau Jr. "A Guide to the Picture Galleries." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12, part 2 (January 1954), ill. p. 13.

Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Florentine School. London, 1963, vol. 1, p. 179.

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Florentine School. New York, 1971, pp. 124–25, ill.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 168, 529, 608.

Carlo L[odovico]. Ragghianti and Gigetta Dalli Regoli. Firenze, 1470–1480: Disegni dal Modello. Pisa, 1975, pp. 21, 43–44 n. 38.

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, pp. 227, 233, fig. 403 (color).

John Pope-Hennessy and Keith Christiansen. "Secular Painting in 15th-Century Tuscany: Birth Trays, Cassone Panels, and Portraits." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 38 (Summer 1980), pp. 61–63, fig. 52 (color).

Hellmut Wohl. The Paintings of Domenico Veneziano, ca. 1410–1461: A Study in Florentine Art of the Early Renaissance. New York, 1980, p. 180, under no. 52.

Mauro Natale. Museo Poldi Pezzoli: dipinti. Milan, 1982, pp. 151–52, under no. 186.

Charles Dempsey. The Portrayal of Love: Botticelli's 'Primavera' and Humanist Culture at the Time of Lorenzo the Magnificent. Princeton, 1992, p. 132, fig. 19.

Nicoletta Pons. I Pollaiolo. Florence, 1994, pp. 105–6, no. 20, ill.

Jennifer E. Craven. "A New Historical View of the Independent Female Portrait in Fifteenth-Century Florentine Painting." PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1997, pp. 245–46, no. 12, fig. 12.

David Alan Brown in Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo's Ginevra de' Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2001, pp. 115–17, no. 6, ill. (color).

Miklós Boskovits in Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. Washington, 2003, p. 594 n. 41.

Shelagh Wemyss. "Francis, Lord Elcho (10th Earl of Wemyss) as a Collector of Italian Old Masters." Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History 8 (2003), p. 76, fig. 4.

Deborah L. Krohn in Art and Love in Renaissance Italy. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, p. 103, fig. 65.

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