This gallery presents different portraits of women during the 16th centaury with a focus on the different use of contrast, as the medium use for all of them is oil paint. The Dark Portraits is showing portraits made by the Italian, and German painter, who made different representation of women, which at the time were not allow to work or go to school unless they were from healthy families being usually educated at home. “A portrait does not merely record someone’s features, however, but says something about who he or she is, offering a vivid sense of a real person’s presence” (Sorabella, Metropolitan Museum)
Portrait of a Noblewoman, Lavinia Fontana, ca. 1580, From the collection of: National Museum of Women in the Arts
Portrait of a Noblewoman shows how talented Fontana was by admiring the details on the jewelry and cloth. Studies have shown that this painting is a wedding painting of a Bolognese bride because she is wearing a red dress like brides from her city use to. In addition, contrast is clearly present in it, with a dark background that helps the woman stand out making her the centerpiece.
Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia, Lorenzo Lotto, about 1530-2, From the collection of: The National Gallery, London
Portrait of a Woman inspired by Lucretia is painting that makes uses of o contrast again by showing a different scale of greys in the background highlighting Lucretia and the drawing that she is holding with her hand being the focus point in this piece. The story behind this painting is extremely sad; Lucretia is about to stab herself because she had been rape by the King’s son.
Portrait of a Woman, Lucas Cranach the Elder, about 1525, From the collection of: The National Gallery, London
Portrait of a Woman is a piece that shows how the high use of contrast between the bright colors and the completely black background highlights the details in the woman’s dress. An interesting fact of this portrait is that there is an M pattern in her bodice, which questions if Cranach’s pieces are truly portraits or an idealization of a theme.
A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (Anne Lovell?), Hans Holbein the Younger, about 1526-8, From the collection of: The National Gallery, London
A Lady with a Squirrel and a Starling (Anne Lovell?) is a brilliant example of how using white against a dark blue still highlights Anne Lovell who is the center piece in this painting. It is believe that this picture was painted during Holbein’s first visit England, and the squirrel represents the Lovell family who used to show squirrel on their coat of arms.
Portrait of Costanza Alidosi, Lavinia Fontana, ca. 1595, From the collection of: National Museum of Women in the Arts
Portrait of Costanza Alidosi it is a painting that show how the use of contrast highlights Costanza’s face, and if you take a look at the dress it also helps to highlight the texture present in gold. For example her arm, which looks like it has different size and shapes of pearls. It is believed that it was painted during one of Acidosi’s husband absence; she wanted to show her power and autonomy.
Girl in a Fur, Tiziano Vecellio,called Titian, 1530/1540, From the collection of: Kunsthistorisches Museum Wien
Girl in a fur, apiece where contrast plays a great role because it makes her body and face to be the main character of this painting, what brilliant way to emphasize the beauty and sensuality of this unknown girl. Furthermore, it is noticeable the work that he put on the bracelet where you can see different textures.
Portrait of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Deidamia, Paolo Veronese, 1552 (Renaissance), From the collection of: The Walters Art Museum
Portrait of Countess Livia da Porto Thiene and her Daughter Deidamia, a paint that definitely exceeds all expectations as a consequence of how he gives depth to the room with the use of different tones of brown making Livia and her daughter the centerpiece of this portrait. Also, he uses different types of textures in her dress like fur in her arm and inside of her coat.
Venus with a Mirror, Titian, c. 1555, From the collection of: National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Venus with a Mirror it is a piece that shows a lot of contrast to help emphasizes the Venus’ body in order to accentuate the beauty and sensuality, making justice to her reputation; Love God. Contrast also help to highlight the different fabric textures present in this piece. During this century love was a huge boom causing different kind of Venus’ representation.
Flora, Tiziano Vecellio, 1515 - Around 1517, From the collection of: Uffizi Gallery
Flora, a painting where contrast plays a very important role because the use of extremely dark background against white shirt, and white skin benefits the composition of this portrait by making this woman the focus. Also, I love how the black background emphasizes the crumples in her shirt. This was one of the first Tiziano’s portraits that represent woman’s beauty.
Girl Before the Mirror, Titian and workshop, After 1515, From the collection of: Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya - MNAC, Barcelona
Girl before the mirror, another Tiziano’s great work where contrast is clearly present to highlight the girl’s beauty because everything that is around her was painted with dark tones, yet her how painted with bright colors, in fact the textures use for her dress seem like a bright fine silk. There is a interesting theory behind this portrait that states the painting is about a love triangle between the girl, her lover and the mirror.
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This user gallery has been created by an independent third party and may not represent the views of the institutions whose collections include the featured works or of Google Arts & Culture.
