Portrait of a woman

This 1720 pastel portrait of a woman, held in the Complesso di Santa Caterina, may be among the works Carriera produced during or shortly after her Paris visit of 1720–21. The date coincides with her most active period of international commissions, when her reputation had been dramatically confirmed by the French court's enthusiastic reception. The sitter is unidentified, placing this among the many Carriera works where documentary connection to a named patron has been lost. The Complesso di Santa Caterina — a religious complex — is an unusual institutional home for a secular portrait, suggesting either a donation, bequest, or complex provenance path that brought the work to this location. The undeniable quality of Carriera's 1720 work would make even an unidentified portrait a significant holding.

The technique of an anonymised female portrait from Carriera's peak year of 1720 would exhibit all her signature qualities: warm, glowing flesh tones, carefully blended transitions, a neutral background that concentrates attention on the face, and a characterisation that combines generalized grace with just enough individual specificity to suggest a real person.