Portrait of a Lady
Bernardino Luini·1520/1525
Historical Context
Luini's Portrait of a Lady from 1520-1525 demonstrates his skill as a portraitist working in the Leonardesque tradition in Milan. As the leading painter in Milan after Leonardo's departure, Luini served the Sforza court's successors and the noble families of Lombardy who demanded portraits in the latest Milanese manner. His half-length female portraits combine the three-quarter pose and atmospheric modeling that Leonardo had introduced to Italian portraiture with a sweeter, more approachable expression — the intense psychological complexity of Leonardo's women softened for a clientele who wanted refinement without challenge. The Milanese nobility's demand for such portraits sustained Luini's practice throughout the 1510s and 1520s.
Technical Analysis
The portrait employs Luini's characteristic soft sfumato modeling derived from Leonardo, with gentle transitions from light to shadow creating a three-dimensional effect. The lady's features are idealized with smooth, blended brushwork, while the costume details are rendered with greater precision. The warm palette creates an intimate, flattering atmosphere.
Provenance
Possibly Queen Isabel II of Spain [abdicated 1870, d. 1904]; possibly from her to Frederick Richards Leyland, Liverpool;[1] (his sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 28 May 1892, no. 103); (Charles Fairfax Murray, London and Florence); Robert Henry [1850-1929] and Evelyn Holford [1856-1943] Benson, London and Buckhurst Park, Sussex, by 1893; sold 1927 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris);[2] purchased April 1928 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 30 March 1932 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, Washington, National Gallery of Art, 1979, vol. 1, p. 282. [2] According to _Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America_, New York, 1941. [3] Mellon/Mellon Trust purchase date and/or date deeded to Mellon Trust is according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).
