Portrait of a Lady as St Lucy

portrait

Boltraffio was a pupil and collaborator of Leonardo in Milan and Leonardo's influence is clearly evident in this portrait of an unknown lady. The proportions of the face and the ideal of beauty which it reflects are very close to Leonardesque prototypes: the oval face, large nose, small mouth and large melancholy eyes. This influence is evident not just in the formal elements and the use of chiaroscuro, but also in the psychological penetration of the sitter's character, who seems to be stifling a smile (as do Leonardo's sitters).

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About the Artist

Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio

1467 – 1516

Italian painter, the the best of Leonardo 's Milanese followers. Most of his works are in Milan, but others are in Berlin, Budapest, Cambridge Mass. (Fogg), Florence (Uffizi), London (National Gallery), New York (Metropolitan Museum), Paris (Louvre and Jacquemart-André) and Philadelphia (Johnson). An interesting portrait by him is at Chatsworth, Derbyshire, and another, in Washington (National Gallery of Art), may have been worked on by Leonardo.

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