From a pair of portraits of husband and wife, painted in celebration of betrothal or marriage, this panel represents a lady of the Gozzadini family of Bologna. To the right of her shoulder a maiden, eyes downcast, unknowingly attracts the attention of a unicorn, which represents the lover drawn to his chaste bride.
The lady holds an apple or a peach, fruits that are common symbols of love and marriage. A pair of rabbits, representing fertility, feed in a small garden at the right.
The frieze at the top bears the second half of a Latin inscription attesting to the couple's intentions in having their portraits painted: "In order that our features may survive."
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Artwork Details
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Title:Portrait of a Woman, possibly Ginevra d'Antonio Lupari Gozzadini
Artist:Attributed to the Maestro delle Storie del Pane (Italian (Emilian), active late 15th century)
Date:1494?
Medium:Tempera on wood
Dimensions:Overall 19 3/4 x 14 5/8 in. (50.2 x 37.1 cm); painted surface 19 1/8 x 14 1/8 in. (48.6 x 35.9 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Robert Lehman Collection, 1975
Accession Number:1975.1.96
Inscription: Inscribed (upper left, on building): . . . FORMA·SVPERSTES ( . . . features may survive)
Contessa Gozzadini, Bologna; Stefano Bardini, Florence; Bardini sale, Christie's, London, May 26-30, 1902, lot 600 (bt. Anderson); [Galerie Trotti, Paris, 1909]; Acquired by Philip Lehman from Trotti in October 1911.
Giovanni Felice Pichi. La vita e le opere di Piero della Francesca. Sansepolcro, 1893.
"Review of Ref. Pichi 1893." Bollettino bibliografico, 3rd ser., 44 (March 15, 1893), p. 384.
Gio[vanni]. Felice Pichi. "Un errata – Corrige a proposito delle Opere di Piero della Francesca." Arte e storia 13 (1894), p. 61.
Gustave Gruyer. L'art ferrarais à l'époque des princes d'Este. Paris, 1897, vol. 2, pp. 112, 121.
Catalogue of a Choice Collection of Pictures and Other Works of Art chiefly Italian, of Mediaeval and Renaissance Times, the Property of Signor Stephano Bardini of Florence. May 26–30, 1902, p. 96, no. 600, ill.
Catalogue des objets d' art, antiques du Moyen Âge et de la Renaissance. May 27ff, 1902, pp. 123–24, no. 673, pl. 95.
Salomon Reinach. Répertoire de peintures du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance (1280–1580). Vol. 1, Paris, 1905, p. 17, fig. 2.
Adolfo Venturi. "Le opere de' pittori ferraresi del '400." L'arte 11 (1908), p. 424.
Tableaux anciens de l'école italienne. Exh. cat., Paris Trotti & Cie. Paris, 1909, p. 9, no. 22.
Georges Lafenestre. "Une exposition de tableaux italiens." Revue de l'art ancien et moderne 25 (January–June, 1909), p. 6, ill. opp. p. 8.
William Bode. "Old Art in the United States." New York Times (December 31, 1911), p. SM4.
Max J. Friedlander. Letter to Messrs. Trotti & Co. October 5, 1911.
Wilhelm Bode. Letter to Philip Lehman. October 6, 1911.
Bernard Berenson. Letter to Philip Lehman. October 11, 1911.
Trotti & Cie. Letter to Philip Lehman. October 3, 1911.
A[dolfo]. Venturi. "La pittura del Quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. part 3, Vol. 7, Milan, 1914, pp. 642, 645–46, fig. 487.
Joseph Breck. "A Crucifixion by Francesco del Cossa." Art in America 2 (1914), p. 314.
A[dolfo]. Venturi. "La pittura del Quattrocento." Storia dell'arte italiana. part 4, Vol. 7, Milan, 1915, pp. 643-646.
Bernard Berenson. Essays in the Study of Sienese Painting. New York, 1918, p. 66.
Robert Lehman. The Philip Lehman Collection, New York: Paintings. Paris, 1928, unpaginated, pl. LXXIX.
August L. Mayer. "Die Sammlung Philip Lehman." Pantheon 5 (1930), p. 116, ill. p. 111.
Lionello Venturi. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931, Pl. 266.
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 186.
Lionello Venturi. "Fifteenth Century Renaissance." Italian Paintings in America. Vol. 2, New York, 1933, unpaginated, pl. 355 [English ed. of Ref. Venturi 1931].
Roberto Longhi. Officina ferrarese. Rome, 1934, pp. 89, 172–73 n. 104, 191, pl. 123.
Wart Arslan. "Review of Ref. Longhi 1934." Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 5 (1936), p. 180.
Bernard Berenson. Pitture italiane del Rinascimento: catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere con un indice dei luoghi. Valori plastici, Milan, 1936, p. 160.
Fernand Mercier. "La valeur symbolique de l'oeillet dans la peinture du Moyen-Age." La revue de l'art ancien et moderne 71 (1937), pp. 233-236.
Roberto Longhi. Ampliamenti nell'Officina ferrarese. Florence, 1940, p. 17.
Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941, Under catalogue nos. 63, 64.
Sergio Ortolani. Cosmè Tura, Francesco del Cossa, Ercole de' Roberti. Milan, 1941, pp. 134–35, 216, pl. 125b.
Paintings and Bronzes from the Collection of Mr. Robert Lehman. Exh. cat., Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. Colorado Springs, 1951, pp. 18–19, ill. Pl. 19.
Theodore Allen Heinrich. "The Lehman Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 12 (April 1954), pp. 218, 220, ill. p. 226.
Theodore Allen Heinrich. "The Lehman Collection." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 8 (1954), pp. 218, 220.
Roberto Longhi. Officina ferrarese 1934 seguíta dagli ampliamenti 1940 e dai nuovi ampliamenti 1940–55. Florence, 1956, pp. 54, 105–6 n. 104, 143, 170 n. 8, fig. 178.
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Michel Laclotte inExposition de la Collection Lehman de New York. Exh. cat., Musée de l'Orangerie. [Paris], 1957, pp. 6–7, no. 8, pl. XIV.
Alberto Neppi. Francesco del Cossa. Milan, 1958, p. 33.
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E. de Jongh. "Dua ritratti che paion viva." Bulletin van het Rijksmuseum 9 (1961), p. 134 n. 38.
Clifford Malcolm Brown. "Lorenzo Costa." PhD diss., Columbia University, 1966, p. 485.
Ranieri Varese. Lorenzo Costa. Milan, 1967, pp. 73–74, no. 66.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Central Italian and North Italian Schools. Vol. 1, London, 1968, vol. 1, p. 132.
Masterpieces of Fifty Centuries. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1970, p. 211, no. 198, ill.
Leland Bell, Harry Bober, Louis Finkelstein, George Heard Hamilton, Thomas B. Hess, John McAndrew, Barnett Newman, Linda Nochlin, John A. Pope, Fairfield Porter, Harold Rosenberg, Meyer Schapiro, Cornelius C. Vermeule, Rudolf Wittkower in "An Inquiry: The Metropolitan Museum, 1870-1970-2001." Art News 68 (January 1970), p. 39, ill. (color).
Harry Bober. "The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1870-1970-2001: Accomplishments and Polemis." Art News 68 (1970), p. 39.
George Szabó. The Robert Lehman Collection: A Guide. New York, 1975, pp. 57–59, colorpl. 42.
L. M. Sleptzoff. Men or Supermen? The Italian Portrait in the Fifteenth Century. Jerusalem, 1978, p. 158, fig. 27b.
George Szabo. Masterpieces of Italian Drawing in the Robert Lehman Collection. New York, 1983, p. 52, fig. 21.
Vittorio Sgarbi. "Antonio da Crevalcore." FMR no. 26 (September 1984), p. 89 [English version, FMR, June 1985, no. 12, p. 118].
Andrea Bacchi. "Vicende della pittura nell’età di Giovanni II Bentivoglio." Bentivolorum Magnificentia; Principe e cultura a Bologna nel Rinascimento. Rome, 1984, pp. 307-308.
Vittorio Sgarbi. Antonio da Crevalcore e la pittura ferrarese del Quattrocento a Bologna. Milan, 1985, pp. 20, 22, ill.
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John Pope-Hennessy assisted by Laurence B. Kanter inThe Robert Lehman Collection. Vol. 1, Italian Paintings. New York, 1987, pp. 218-219, no. 90.
Andrea Bacchi inLa pittura in Italia: il Quattrocento. revised and expanded ed. [Milan], 1987, vol. 2, p. 681.
Christopher Wright. The World's Master Paintings: From the Early Renaissance to the Present Day. New York, 1991, p. 39.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, pp. 112-113.
David Alan Brown. Leonardo da Vinci: Origins of Genius. New Haven, 1998, p. 105, fig. 91.
Vittorio Sgarbi. Francesco del Cossa. Milan, 2003, p. 238, no. 44, ill.
Angela Ghirardi inUn signore allo specchio: il ritratto e il palazzo di Giovanni II Bentivoglio. Bologna, 2003, pp. 52–53, ill.
David Alan Brown in Miklós Boskovits et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. Washington, 2003, p. 361.
Eveline Baseggio Universitá Ca' Foscari di Venezia. Jacometto Veneziano tra paralleli e confronti. 2007, pp. 137–39, pl. 27.
Andrea Bayer inArt and Love in Renaissance Italy. Ed. Andrea Bayer. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, no. 121b.
Everett Fahy inArt and Love in Renaissance Italy. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, pp. 19–20, cat. no. 121b.
Nancy Edwards inArt and Love in Renaissance Italy. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2008, pp. 261–63, no. 121b, ill. (color).
Andrea Bayer. "Paintings of Love and Marriage in the Italian Renaissance." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York, 2008.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Attributed to the Maestro delle Storie del Pane: Portrait of a Man, possibly Matteo di Sebastiano di Bernardino Gozzadini; and Portrait of a Woman, possibly Ginevra d'Antonio Lupari Gozzadini (1975.1.95,96)." Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York, 2008.
Keith Christiansen and Stefan Weppelmann. The Renaissance Portrait: From Donatello to Bellini. Exh. cat.New York, 2011, pp. 279-281, no. 115b.
Lorenzo Monaco (Piero di Giovanni) (Italian, Florence (?) ca. 1370–1425 Florence (?))
ca. 1406–10
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