Portrait of a Woman
Piero della Francesca
(Italian, born about 1415–died in 1492)
Medium/TechniqueTempera on panel
Dimensions31.4 x 25.4 cm (12 3/8 x 10 in.)
Credit LineLucy Houghton Eaton Fund
Accession number40.237
On View
Not on viewClassificationsPaintings
Collections
ProvenanceSaid to have been sold by the Counts Conestabile della Staffa, Città di Castello, Umbria, to the Viganò family, Florence [see note 1]; 1940, sold by Mrs. Beatrice Viganò, through Mortimer Brandt Gallery, New York, to the MFA for $60,000. (Accession Date: May 9, 1940)
NOTES:
[1] According to a letter from Mortimer Brandt to W. G. Constable of the MFA (May 3, 1940). In correspondence from Mrs. Viganò to George Edgell, Director of the MFA (July 16, 1940), she states that when it was acquired, the panel had been painted over to represent a saint; the profile of a woman was revealed during a cleaning in 1935. Her letter mentions the Magherini Graziani family in Città di Castello along with Connestabile [sic] della Staffa, though it is unclear whether she meant to say that the former were previous owners of the work as well.
NOTES:
[1] According to a letter from Mortimer Brandt to W. G. Constable of the MFA (May 3, 1940). In correspondence from Mrs. Viganò to George Edgell, Director of the MFA (July 16, 1940), she states that when it was acquired, the panel had been painted over to represent a saint; the profile of a woman was revealed during a cleaning in 1935. Her letter mentions the Magherini Graziani family in Città di Castello along with Connestabile [sic] della Staffa, though it is unclear whether she meant to say that the former were previous owners of the work as well.
Zanobi di Jacopo di Piero Machiavelli
1460s
Piero della Francesca
Unidentified artist, Russian (Palekh School), 18th century
Unidentified artist, Greek (Veneto-Cretan), 16th century
Argonaut Master
last third of the 15th century
Master of the Bracciolini Chapel
1420s
