Francesco Marchissi, ‘Sala dei Pittori’ (detail), c. 1760. Vienna, Nationalbibliothek
Monday 13 October, 6:30pm.
Georges Seurat, ‘Young woman powdering herself’, 1889-90. Courtauld Gallery, London.
An article by Aviva Burnstock (Head of the Department of Conservation & Technology, Courtauld Institute, London) and Karen Serres (Schroder Foundation Curator of Paintings, Courtauld Institute) in the April edition of The Burlington Magazine reveals a hidden self-portrait by Georges Seurat (1859-91) in his painting Young woman powdering herself of 1889-90.
Filippo Lippi: Portrait of a woman with a Man at a Casement, c. 1440. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
In an important new article in the Metropolitan Museum Journal, Katalin Prajda (Central European University, Budapest) makes a convincing case for re-identifying the sitters in Filippo Lippi’s well-known double-portrait, the so-called Portrait of a Woman with a Man at a Casement. They have traditionally been identified as Agnola di Bernardo Sapiti and her husband, Lorenzo di Rinieri Scolari, based on the coat of arms under the male sitter’s hands, which is that of the Scolari family. Prajda questions this identification, particularly as there was a considerable age difference between the couple, somewhere between twelve and twenty-four years (Agnola was born c. 1422; Lorenzo’s exact birth-date is not known but he was born between 1398 and 1410). Moreover, the pictorial elements of the portrait are all subordinate to the female sitter; she is the focus of the painting and the dominant figure within it. Prajda therefore suggests that it is she who is the member of the Scolari family rather than her companion. Continue reading
Melbourne Portrait Group 