Alessandro Allori and Workshop

Portrait of a Florentine noblewoman, bust-length

Auction Closed

January 27, 09:38 PM GMT

Estimate

40,000 - 60,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

Property from the Estate of Benjamin D. Holt, Jr.

Alessandro Allori and Workshop

Florence 1535 - 1607

Portrait of a Florentine noblewoman, bust-length

oil on panel

panel: 18 by 13 in.; 45.7 by 33.0 cm.

framed: 26⅝ by 21⅝ in.; 67.6 by 54.9 cm.

Arthur Fitzgerald (1847-1923), Lord Kinnaird of Inchture, Rossie Priory, Scotland, by 1890;
Thence by inheritance to his son, Kenneth Fitzgerald Kinnaird (1880-1972), Lord Kinnaird of Inchture, Rossie Priory, Scotland;
By whom sold, London, Sotheby's, 27 March 1968, lot 100 (as A. Bronzino);
Where acquired by Betts;
Thereafter acquired by the late collector.

A.H. Millar, The Historical Castles and Mansions of Scotland, Perthshire and Forfarshire, London 1890, p. 261 (as Bronzino, of a Medici princess).

This refined portrait of a member of the Florentine patriciate was painted by Alessandro Allori and his workshop probably during the 1550s, when this style of coiffure and dress was in vogue. The elegant sitter wears a red velvet dress over a white shift ornamented with straps of gold filigree. The pearl necklace and complementary headdress served as tangible symbols of her wealth and status.

The painting is likely an adaptation of a three-quarter-length, seated portrait of the sitter, one version of which is in Paris (Musée du Louvre, inv. no. MNR 800) while another is untraced since World War II (previously Kyiv, Nationalmuseum, inv. no. 6057). The original, erroneously identified as depicting Eleanora di Toledo in the past, may have been conceived as a pendant to a portrait depicting the sitter's husband.

Among those artists working closely with Allori at that time was Giovanni Maria Butteri (Florence circa 1540-1606 or 1608), who may have participated in the execution of this refined portrait. Like Allori, Butteri trained under Agnolo Bronzino, and the two younger painters remained associates and collaborators throughout their careers. The hard edges of the sitter's features, as well as the geometric rendering of her visage, are hallmarks of Butteri's style.

We are grateful to Adriana Concin for her assistance cataloguing this lot.