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Portrait of a Noblewoman Dressed in Mourning
Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti; Italian, 1551–1640)
c. 1600
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 221 × 122.5 cm (87 × 48 1/4 in.); Framed: 243.9 × 147.4 × 5.1 cm (96 × 58 × 2 in.)
- Culture
- Italy
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Louise B. and Frank H. Woods Purchase Fund
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
The subject of this imposing portrait is unknown today. Her black costume and traditional mourning veil indicate her status as an aristocratic widow, while the prominent crucifix refers to her piety, as does the small prayer book in her hand. The woman is nearly life-size and framed by a dramatic black curtain, conventions in portraiture of the nobility across Europe at the time. In the decades around 1600, the Medici dukes of Florence intermarried with the ruling houses of Europe, and their court artists and work-shops helped establish an international style that appealed to princely and aristocratic collectors.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
