Portrait of a Woman with Mask

Although the history of this pastel prior to its appearance on the antique market is unknown, its provenance from the Galleria Lorenzelli in Bergamo is documented by a label on the back of the work and by an estimate drawn up in Italian lire by Sotheby’s. Rosalba Carriera’s hand is evident both in the painting’s stylistic characteristics, which are consistent with those of this Venetian painter’s oeuvre, and in the gracefulness and elegance with which the figures are presented. We may presume that the pastel was executed during the years following the artist’s trip to Paris in 1720, where her direct encounter with French art brought an even greater lightness and elegance to her style. The young woman is represented almost as if she were an allegorical figure, with a charming circlet of flowers holding her hair in place, a pretty ribbon around her neck and a bracelet consisting of a double strand of pearls and clasp set with a precious stone, possibly an aquamarine. Her gauzy white dress allowing a glimpse of her breast is indebted to Classicism and the representation of pagan goddesses. The black domino she is holding in her right hand takes us back to the artist’s own era, in a subtle play of fiction and reality.