Bildnis eines jungen Mädchens

This undated Carriera pastel of a young girl in the Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe entered the Baden collection through the eighteenth-century trade in Venetian art, following a path similar to many works that dispersed across German-speaking territories. The title 'Bildnis eines jungen Mädchens' (Portrait of a Young Girl) is generic, indicating either an unknown sitter or a work whose documentation has been lost. Young children were among Carriera's subjects throughout her career, and her soft pastel technique was particularly well suited to capturing the delicacy of childhood features. The Karlsruhe Kunsthalle's Italian collection, though less extensive than Dresden's, contains important works acquired through the Baden margraves' sustained cultural engagement with Italy.

Child portraiture in pastel required the gentlest application of Carriera's techniques: the skin tones particularly delicate, the features smaller and less definitively formed than adult faces. She uses the palest possible mid-tones in the flesh, reserving the full range of her warm-to-cool modelling for the eyes and the transition from cheek to shadow.