Ritratto di donna nelle vesti di Flora

Ritratto di donna nelle vesti di Flora (Portrait of a Woman as Flora), painted around 1760, belongs to the tradition of mythological portraiture — dressing a real sitter in the guise of a classical deity — that had been popular in European art since Titian's portraits of his mistresses as Venus and Lavinia. In Tiepolo's Venice, the practice of painting noble and wealthy women as Flora (the spring goddess of flowers), Diana, or Venus served both as artistic flattery and as a display of the sitter's humanist sophistication. Flora subjects also allowed the painter to incorporate spring landscape settings and floral still-life elements that enriched the visual complexity of the work. By 1760 Tiepolo was approaching his last Venetian years before the Spanish journey, and these portraits represent the private market commissions that sustained his studio between the grand monumental projects. The absence of a documented location for this work suggests it may be in a private collection.

The sitter's features are individualized enough to suggest a real portrait despite the mythological costume and floral attributes. Luminous, warm flesh tones and fluid brushwork in the drapery and flowers demonstrate Tiepolo's late Venetian manner.