Portrait of a Roman Lady (La Nanna)

Leighton painted La Nanna in 1859 during a significant period of artistic development, when he was absorbing the lessons of his Italian sojourn alongside the technical demands of the Royal Academy exhibition system. The title 'La Nanna' — an Italian diminutive often used for a beloved woman — and the subtitle's identification as a Roman Lady situate the subject in the italianate tradition of idealized female portraiture that ran from Leonardo through Raphael to the Victorian painters who revered them. Leighton had spent extended time in Rome and elsewhere in Italy, studying both old masters and contemporary life models. The Philadelphia Museum of Art's canvas represents his synthesis of Italian portrait tradition with his own developing aesthetic — the warm Venetian flesh tones, the direct but idealized gaze, the figure set against a neutral ground that focuses all attention on face and form.

The warm, golden flesh tones derived from Titian and Giorgione are applied with Leighton's characteristic smooth modeling. The half-length format places the figure in close relationship with the viewer. Any Italian costume elements — jewelry, fabric — are rendered with care for their decorative and material qualities. The neutral or simply rendered background removes the figure from specific social context and places her in the timeless space of artistic idealization.