Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Giovanni Battista Moroni - Abbess Lucrezia Agliardi Vertova [1557]


The Latin inscription reads: "Lucrezia, daughter of the most noble Alessio Agliardi of Bergamo, [and] wife of the most honourable Francesco Cataneo Vertova, herself founded the church of Saint Anne at Albino. 1557"

The Agliardi were a prominent family in the north Italian city of Bergamo. After being widowed, Lucrezia founded the Carmelite convent of Santa Anna. It was there that she was buried and there that this remarkably unidealised portrait hung until around 1797, when the convent was suppressed. Moroni's uncompromising, naturalistic style may have been an important ingredient in the training of the young Caravaggio.

[Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York - Oil on canvas, 91.4 x 68.6 cm]
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