Italian school; second third of the XVIII century.

Italian school; second third of the eighteenth century.
"Portrait of a lady".
Oil on canvas.
Preserves original canvas.
It has a period frame.
Measurements: 85 x 69 cm; 100 x 83 cm (frame).
Oil on canvas, which represents the bust of a woman, following the classical tradition of portraiture. The lady protagonist of the painting shows all the evidence of belonging to the high nobility; the mastery of execution and detail allow us to appreciate secondary elements such as the attributes that the woman carries which indicate a high social position. Thus, she wears an attire according to the feminine fashion of the XVIII century. Defined by the tight bodice, in addition to the ample French sleeves. The author has focused the light on the woman's face, using resources such as the neutral background and its darkness, on which the lady's pearly skin stands out. Her skin is almost devoid of adornment. The woman is facing the viewer, to whom she looks directly with a serious gesture in such a way that establishes a distance with the viewer who does not become an accomplice of the scene as it conveys all its power and magnificence.
In the eighteenth century, the panorama of European portraiture was varied and broad, with numerous influences and largely determined by the taste of both the clientele and the painter himself. However, this century saw the birth of a new concept of portraiture, which would evolve throughout the century and unify all the national schools: the desire to capture the personality of the human being and his character, beyond his external reality and his social rank, in his effigy. During the previous century, portraiture had become consolidated among the upper classes, and was no longer reserved only for the court. For this reason, the formulas of the genre, as the 17th century progressed and even more so in the 18th century, became more relaxed and moved away from the ostentatious and symbolic official representations typical of the Baroque apparatus. On the other hand, the eighteenth century will react against the rigid etiquette of the previous century with a more human and individual conception of life, and this will be reflected in all areas, from the furniture that becomes smaller and more comfortable, replacing the large gilded and carved furniture, to the portrait itself, which will come to dispense, as we see here, of any scenographic element to capture the individual rather than the character.