A portray sitting in storage at a provincial museum in northern France was just lately reattributed to Lavinia Fontana, one of many foremost feminine painters of the Italian Renaissance.
The portray in query, Portrait of a Gentleman, his Daughter and a Servant, depicts a father clad in a modern black swimsuit with a pleated collar. He’s proven sitting in an armchair subsequent to his equally dressed daughter, who’s giving him a handful of flowers; simply behind them is a maid inserting a basket of fruit.
The work has been held by the Musée de la Chartreuse in Douai since 1857, however was solely reexamined just lately. Florentine and Roman artwork specialist Philippe Costamagna noticed the portray in storage and insisted, as he stated to Agence France-Presse, “it’s an Italian portray, Bolognese in spirit from A to Z. Every little thing is paying homage to it: the little lady with the little flowers, the strokes on the collar and on the sleeve.”
The piece was beforehand attributed to the Flemish Renaissance painter Pieter Pourbus (1523–84), however upon additional research, the work was reattributed to Lavinia Fontana.
“The portray is in glorious situation; it hasn’t been badly restored up to now, so it hasn’t been distorted. The restoration will improve it,” Costamagna added.
Fontana was a trailblazer. She is assumed to have been one of many first girls to professionally paint within the West. Born in Bologna in 1552, she skilled beneath her father Prospero and died in Rome in 1614. She paved the way in which for ladies artists who got here after her, just like the Baroque painter Artemisia Gentileschi (1593–1653).
