Portrait of a young Woman

Portrait of a Young Woman, circa 1550, in the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum Madrid, belongs to Bordone's substantial output of female portraits and poetic female bust images — a genre that blurred the boundary between portraiture and idealised feminine imagery in Venetian painting. Titian established the format and Bordone, like Palma Vecchio, refined it for a clientele that valued beautiful women as subjects for decorative paintings regardless of whether they represented specific individuals. The Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, one of Europe's great private collections now open to the public, holds an outstanding range of Italian Renaissance portraiture. Whether this young woman is an identifiable sitter or a type is uncertain, but her direct gaze and individualised features suggest a real model.

The bust format places the subject close to the picture plane, creating intimacy. Bordone's flesh tones are worked in thin glazes over a warm ground, achieving the luminous skin quality Venetian painters prized. Elaborate hair ornaments and jewellery are rendered with precision, their reflective surfaces contrasting with the matte warmth of the skin.