(Genoa 1639–1709 Rome)
Portrait of a lady in ermine,
oil on canvas, 66.5 x 55 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection

We are grateful to Francesco Petrucci for confirming the attribution of the present painting (written comminucation).

Hitherto unpublished, the present painting is an important addition to the artist’s few surviving female portraits. Gaulli, together with Simon Voet, Morandi, and Carlo Maratti, was one of the leading portraitists in Rome, and Italy in general, during the second half of the 17th century.

The accurately drawn and foreshortened face, the lady’s vivid expression, the brilliant colours, the generous brushwork used for the details, the softness of the painting in the area of the décolleté, and the Baroque splendour are typical of Gaulli´s oeuvre and in terms of the pose, the present composition is comparable to the Portrait of Eleonora Boncompagni Borghese (Uffizi, Florence).

The sitter’s extraordinary hairstyle and the smooth, compact execution of the work suggest a date around 1690.

The half-length portrait of a lady embedded in an oval had become fashionable in Italy under the influence of French painting from the mid-1660s onwards. The sitter wears a costly garment, an ermine-trimmed red jacket decorated at the neckline with a large golden pendant set with precious stones and pink and white ostrich feathers, as well as a brooch at the shoulder, a string of pearls, and ample ornament in her elaborately done hair. She seems to be a lady of royal rank, possibly a grand duchess or queen.

Giovanni Battista Gaulli, a versatile artist and protégé of the popes who was also favoured by Bernini, devoted himself to various painting genres with equal commitment. His style proved seminal for the development of 18th-century painting. He portrayed all of the popes from Alexander VII to Clement IX, as well as numerous cardinals and princes, endowing his sitters with a rare naturalistic presence. Moreover, Gaulli painted important frescoes in the Chiesa del Gesù and in Santissimi Apostoli in Rome, which were disseminated throughout Europe.