Details
Bernardino de' Conti (1450-c.1528)
Portrait of a Lady, half length, in profile, in a black dress decorated with lace, with pendant tassels and slashed shoulders and an orange and grey snood
on inset panel
30¾ x 23in. (78 x 58.5cm.) including approx. 1cm. of modern panel on each side
Provenance
Conte Carlo Castelbarco, Milan; sale, Paris, 2-6 May 1870, lot 27
Alfred Morrison, and by descent at Fonthill House, Tisbury, Wiltshire, to
Lord Margadale of Islay; Christie's, 2 July 1965, lot 57 (29,000 gns. to Agnew)
Anon. Sale, Christie's, 14 Dec. 1990, lot 6
Literature
G. Morelli, Italian Painters. Critical Studies of their Works. The Borghese and Doria Pamphili Galleries, 1892, p. 192
S. Reinach, Répertoire de Peintures du Moyen Age et de la Renaissance (1280-1580), I, 1905, illustrated with an engraving p. 668, as 'Ambrogio da Predis or Bernardino de' Conti. Portrait de femme (Bianca Maria Sforza?)'
B. Berenson, North Italian Painters of the Renaissance, 1907, p. 198
J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy, ed. T. Borenius, 1912, II, p. 395, note
W. Suida, Leonardo und sein Kreis, 1929, pp. 185 and 282
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, 1932, p. 79
B. Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools, 1968, I, p. 47, and III, pl. 1402
Dizionario Enciclopedico Bolaffi dei Pittori e degli Incisori Italiani, III, 1972, p. 423
S. M. Levey, Lace. A History, 1983, pl. 104
Pittura Italiana dal '300 al '500, ed. M. Natale, Milan, 1991, pp. 110-11, illustrated: 'Uno dei più interessanti (e forse meno capiti) dipinti del Rinascimento italiano offerti al pubblico incanto negli ultimi anni. La perfezione tecnica, la suggestiva invenzione prospettica (il busto di tre quarti e il volto in profilo) e la impeccabile conservazione del dipinto potevano certo favorire un risultato economico ancora più positivo, anche se la personalità artistica di Bernardino de' Conti è ancora da mettere a fuoco all'interno della bottega milanese di Leonardo'
Exhibited
London, New Gallery, Early Italian Art, 1893-94, no. 260, as Boltraffio
London, Burlington Fine Arts Club, Pictures of the Milanese School, 1898, no. 44 and pl. xiii
London, New Grosvenor Gallery, Second National Loan Exhibition. Woman and Child in Art, 1913-14, p. 65, no. XXXVIII, illustrated
London, Royal Academy, Italian Art 1200-1900, 1 Jan.-8 March 1930, no. 334
London, Agnew's, Master Paintings. Recent Acquisitions, 18 May-18 June 1976, no. 17 and pl. X
