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Moroni's Portrait of a Woman is the most significant Italian Renaissance painting to join the Frick's collection in more than half a century. Complementing the exceptional portraits by Bronzino, Titian, and others acquired by the museum's founder, Henry Clay Frick, this gift from the trust of Assadour O. Tavitian, the museum's late and beloved trustee, is the first female portrait to enter the Frick's superb holdings of Renaissance paintings.
Giovanni Battista Moroni (1520/24–1579/80) spent his career painting in and around his native Bergamo, in Lombardy, then part of the Venetian Republic. His portraits are celebrated for the psychological presence and lifelikeness of the sitters, as well as the extreme attention to the details of the clothing and accessories–sumptuous fineries that signal wealth, status, and fashion.
The identity of the woman and the reason Moroni painted her are unknown. Her strong, somewhat confrontational gaze is unconventional in Renaissance portraits of women, which tend to promote a more modest nature. Whatever the purpose of the portrait, which was probably painted about 1575, Moroni demonstrates his exceptional skill in depicting the woman's pink dress brocaded in silver-gilt and silver-wound thread, white ruffled collar, her necklace and earring, and the jewelry ornamenting her hair. Of some one hundred twenty-five portraits by Moroni that are known today, only about fifteen are independent portraits of women. This portrait is the finest of these and, until this gift to the Frick, was among the most important portraits by Moroni remaining in private hands.
