La Bella
| La Bella | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Artist | Titian |
| Year | c. 1536 |
| Type | painting |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 100 cm × 75 cm (39 in × 30 in) |
| Location | Palazzo Pitti, Florence |
La Bella is a portrait of an unidentified woman by Titian, that was painted around 1536 and now is in the Palazzo Pitti in Florence. The painting shows the subject with the ideal proportions for Renaissance women and a natural expressive force. The work is that of a mature artist and the composition is clear.[1]
Often, La Bella is discussed in relation to Titian's Portrait of Isabella d'Este in Vienna. That painting of Isabella was commissioned by her when she was in her sixties and it was to be an idealized, youthful portrait. Eye colour, hair colour, eye brows, and attractiveness echo other portraits of Isabella d'Este.[2] It is unlikely that Isabella sat for the painting because during this period of her life, she is known to have commissioned other idealized paintings of her by numerous famous artists of the time without sitting for them,[3] so a model would have been used.
Titian likely used the same model that he had used for the Venus of Urbino.[4] Both paintings are documented in letters written by Francesco Maria I della Rovere, Duke of Urbino,[5] who was the husband of Isabella d'Este's daughter Eleonora Gonzaga. The Venus of Urbino was painted for the marriage of their son,[6] so there are similarities and the environment of the same family.
In La Bella, the subject of the painting points with her left hand to a zibellino draped over her right forearm. A zibellino is the pelt of a sable or martin used as a fashion accessory that became associated with mature noble Venetian ladies.
Isabella d'Este was renown for introducing new fashions that quickly were copied among her peers throughout Italy and at the French court.[7] Since she was one of the first ladies to wear that fashion,[8] perhaps the use of that distinctive gesture may be a clue to the identity of the subject of the painting.
References
- ^ (in Spanish) Los maestros de la pintura occidental, Taschen, 2005, page 176, ISBN 3-8228-4744-5
- ^ Leandro Ozzola, Isabella d'Este e Tiziano, in Bollettino d'arte, 1931, p. 491-494 Download: http://www.bollettinodarte.beniculturali.it/opencms/multimedia/BollettinoArteIt/documents/1407155929929_06_-_Ozzola_491.pdf
- ^ Ferino, Sylvia: Isabella d'Este – Fürstin und Mäzenatin der Renaissance. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Vienna) 1994, pp. 86–425
- ^ Corrado Cagli: L'opera completa di Tiziano, Rizzoli Milano 1969, no. 177 - La Bella
- ^ Ciatti, Marco/ Navarro, Fausta/ Riitano, Patrizia: Titian's La Bella - Woman in a Blue Dress.Edifir Firenze 2011, pp. 41-48, ISBN 978-88-7970-523-3 (Original letters in Italian and English)
- ^ Goffen, Rona: Sex, Space and History in Titian's Venus of Urbino, in Titian's Venus of Urbino, ed. by Goffen, Rona, Cambridge 1997, pp. 63-90
- ^ Ferino, Sylvia: Isabella d'Este – Fürstin und Mäzenatin der Renaissance. Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien (Vienna) 1994
- ^ (in German) Malaguzzi, Silvia: Schmuck und Juwelen in der Kunst. Parthas Verlag Berlin 2008, p. 274, ISBN 978-3-936324-94-5