Portrait of a Woman

Del Sarto's Portrait of a Woman from around 1518, believed to be his wife Lucrezia del Fede, belongs to his series of female portraits that combined his mastery of atmospheric sfumato modeling with the psychological directness of the best Florentine portraiture. Lucrezia was a significant presence in del Sarto's life and art — she had a strong personality that contemporaries noted, and she appears in multiple of his paintings, her distinctive features recognizable across different works. His portraiture served the Florentine aristocratic and merchant world, and his technique of warm atmospheric modeling in the Leonardesque tradition gave his portraits a quality of individual presence unusual in the period's more conventional approach.

Del Sarto's oil on wood shows his supreme sfumato technique with soft, warm flesh tones and the atmospheric modeling that creates an image of gentle beauty and psychological depth.