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Lot Essay
This early 16th century portrait was given to Raphael when it was acquired by Henri Heugel in 1907. Certainly the pose of the sitter and the technique employed suggest key Florentine and Lombard influences and prompt a rich array of comparative early cinquecento portraits. The typology is eminently recognisable: the half-length figure, turned to the left in three-quarter view, with her hands visible on her lap, derives from Leonardo and would be notably reprised by artists working in his wake in Milan and Florence. The technique too is evidently Leonardesque in its inspiration: the soft modeling of the sitter's mouth and the smooth contours of her face are further evidence of the influence of the master on followers such as Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio and Andrea Solario.
The picture's former attribution to Raphael owes much to the work's proximity to the Urbino master's later portraits. Raphael was himself, of course, notably influenced by Leonardo following the latter's return to Tuscany from Milan in 1500, as can be seen in the portraits of Maddalena Doni (Florence, Galleria Palatina) and La Muta (Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche), both of which evidence this new type of female portraiture. Although La Muta has in some quarters been attributed to Giuliano Bugiardini, it is a work that also bears evident similarities to the present lot, particularly in the elegant drawing of the neck and shoulders. This composition then appears to have understood and reworked the predominant elements of the High Renaissance, seemingly absorbing the influences of both Leonardo and Raphael.
The current attribution to Gian Francesco Caroto, which is supported by Everett Fahy, was proposed in 1994 by the late Sylvie Béguin, for many years head curator at the Louvre (Brejon, op. cit., 1994, p. 473). The Louvre in fact holds one portrait given securely to Caroto, and another attributed to him. The former work is signed 'G.F. Charotus F.' (the signature revealed in recent years in X-ray). Caroto, though Veronese by birth, travelled widely in northern Italy, and would have been exposed to Lombard pictorial culture, having spent time in both Mantua and Milan. Vasari, who was a friend of Caroto's brother, records in his Lives that the artist spent a period working under the patronage of Anton Maria Visconti in Milan (G. Vasari, Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori et architettori, 1568, ed. 1906, V, pp. 282-3).
Henri Heugel was the heir to the music publishing firm, Èditions Heugel, which had been established in 1839 by Henri's father, Jacques-Léopold. Henri vigorously expanded the holdings of the company, buying the rights to new titles and ensuring that the house became a leader in opera publishing. He was friendly with the industrialist and fellow collector Henry Clay Frick, who offered Heugel a healthy sum to buy his collection in 1912; Heugel declined the offer. He amassed a fine collection of over 170 pictures, not to mention splendid works of sculpture and furniture. He bought the majority of these works, including this one (for which he paid an impressive sum of 200,000 francs), from the celebrated Austrian-born Parisian dealer Charles Sedelmeyer, who also exhibited the picture in 1911. Many of these pictures from the Heugel collection are now in public museums or private collections.
The picture's former attribution to Raphael owes much to the work's proximity to the Urbino master's later portraits. Raphael was himself, of course, notably influenced by Leonardo following the latter's return to Tuscany from Milan in 1500, as can be seen in the portraits of Maddalena Doni (Florence, Galleria Palatina) and La Muta (Urbino, Galleria Nazionale delle Marche), both of which evidence this new type of female portraiture. Although La Muta has in some quarters been attributed to Giuliano Bugiardini, it is a work that also bears evident similarities to the present lot, particularly in the elegant drawing of the neck and shoulders. This composition then appears to have understood and reworked the predominant elements of the High Renaissance, seemingly absorbing the influences of both Leonardo and Raphael.
The current attribution to Gian Francesco Caroto, which is supported by Everett Fahy, was proposed in 1994 by the late Sylvie Béguin, for many years head curator at the Louvre (Brejon, op. cit., 1994, p. 473). The Louvre in fact holds one portrait given securely to Caroto, and another attributed to him. The former work is signed 'G.F. Charotus F.' (the signature revealed in recent years in X-ray). Caroto, though Veronese by birth, travelled widely in northern Italy, and would have been exposed to Lombard pictorial culture, having spent time in both Mantua and Milan. Vasari, who was a friend of Caroto's brother, records in his Lives that the artist spent a period working under the patronage of Anton Maria Visconti in Milan (G. Vasari, Le Vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori et architettori, 1568, ed. 1906, V, pp. 282-3).
Henri Heugel was the heir to the music publishing firm, Èditions Heugel, which had been established in 1839 by Henri's father, Jacques-Léopold. Henri vigorously expanded the holdings of the company, buying the rights to new titles and ensuring that the house became a leader in opera publishing. He was friendly with the industrialist and fellow collector Henry Clay Frick, who offered Heugel a healthy sum to buy his collection in 1912; Heugel declined the offer. He amassed a fine collection of over 170 pictures, not to mention splendid works of sculpture and furniture. He bought the majority of these works, including this one (for which he paid an impressive sum of 200,000 francs), from the celebrated Austrian-born Parisian dealer Charles Sedelmeyer, who also exhibited the picture in 1911. Many of these pictures from the Heugel collection are now in public museums or private collections.