🖌️🎨 Petrus Christus (c. 1410/1420–1475/1476) was a Dutch (Flemish) painter, a successor of Jan van Eyck
🖌️🎨 Petrus Christus (c. 1410/1420–1475/1476) was a Dutch (Flemish) painter, a successor of Jan van Eyck.🖼️ "Portrait of a Young Woman"/"Portrait of a French Lady"Circa 1465–147028x21 cmBerlin Picture Gallery🖼️ Mysterious Girl from a 15th-Century Painting
🪶"A polished pearl, almost mother-of-pearl, lying on a black velvet cushion," is how one researcher describes this Flemish portrait.
🖌️ The painting literally draws the eye. It has been called the second Mona Lisa. 🖌️ The light and the almost childlike prettiness of the subject make it a delightful work of art. She fulfills Gothic notions of female beauty: the narrowness of her shoulders and the length of her neck are emphasized by an elegant necklace, the elongated oval of her face by a black ribbon, and her eyebrows, almost completely plucked in keeping with the fashion of the time, and her hair pulled tightly back, create a very high forehead.The lower edge of the painting practically forces the viewer to look into the girl's eyes—almond-shaped, with a slightly oriental slant.
🖌️ The model has a very high forehead, made even larger by her barely noticeable, almost nonexistent eyebrows.Her unusual, slightly oriental slant is accentuated by a slight squint—cover the right side of the girl's face with your hand and you'll see her left eye looking straight at you; do the same with the left side of her face—her right eye will look down.A slight squint lends her gaze a mystical piercingness and a certain uneasiness, while her half-smile combines sadness and arrogance.
🖌️ This girl seems unaware of us, yet one cannot shake the feeling that she is aware of our presence.This is an extremely rare occurrence in Renaissance painting—models typically do not violate the boundaries of two spaces: the picture plane and the real world in which the viewer finds themselves.
🖌️ But it's not only the girl's gaze and face that attract attention—the overall composition of the painting seems to be inscribed in a figure eight, where the lines of the headdress and the black ribbon around her neck seem to continue into the white neckline of her dress.And the combination of dark and light lines and spots creates a hypnotic spiral.
🖌️ And finally, the mystical effect enhances the image's realism: the artist meticulously depicts not only the jewelry, hair, and velvety skin, visible even through the cracks of the craquelure, but also the transparent, weightless shawl around the neck and the almost invisible thread pinned in place.In this way, the Flemish artist manages to create an enigmatic image using only artistic means—composition and color.
🖌️ The portrait's authorship was established in 1825 from the original frame, now lost. It was also stated there that the panel depicted a relative of the "famous Talbot."After extensive research, most art historians are inclined to believe that this is most likely Anna or Margaret—one of the daughters of John Talbot, 2nd Earl of Shrewsbury. The aristocrat and his family visited Bruges, where Petrus Christus lived, in 1468 for the wedding of Margaret of York, sister of the English King Edward IV, and Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
🖌️ Unfortunately, there are no other lifetime portraits of either Anne or Margaret. In the 15th century, personal portraits outside of royal families were extremely rare.
🖌️ The painting is mentioned in the property register of the head of the Florentine Republic, Lorenzo de' Medici, in 1492.At that time, a rather incompetent lawyer described the work as "Portrait of a French Lady." Even at that time, the painting was incredibly expensive – 40 florins – and was exhibited to the public.In the early 19th century, it was acquired along with other works by old masters for the King of Prussia, Frederick William III.The monarch hoped to assemble a collection that would surpass the Louvre. This collection later became the foundation of the Berlin Picture Gallery, where Petrus Christus's "Portrait of a Young Woman" is still housed.
Based on materials from:artсhive; https://www.bermoods.com/zagadka-devushki-s-kartin .#renaissance#femaleportrait#oldmasters#petruschristus#mysteriousportrait
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