a beautiful Venetian woman from the circle of Pàris Bordone or Palma the Elder

Presentation of the work

From the circle of Páris Bordone (1500–1571) or Jacopo Negretti, known as Palma the Elder (c. 1480–1528), *The Beautiful Venetian Woman*. oil on canvas, 59.5 x 74 cm. Château de Bussy-Rabutin (Bussy-le-Grand)
© Benjamin Gavaudo / CMN

The young woman wears a loose-fitting shirt, revealing one of her breasts, beneath a heavy green velvet coat lined with pink satin. Her blonde hair, partly loose, falls casually down her neck, accentuating the sensuality of the portrait. Her elaborate hairstyle and her numerous pieces of jewellery contrast with the apparent casualness of the pose, typical of Italian portraits of courtesans, particularly Venetian ones. All the elements suggesting eroticism are present: the proximity of her hair to the whiteness of her skin, the coat worn loosely, leaving it unclear whether it has been put on or is slipping off. The pose carries an erotic ambiguity, leaving it unclear whether it suggests a ‘before’ or an ‘after’. The background, with its sculpted frieze, suggests that this courtesan is posing within a palace.

In the^16th century, portraits of courtesans were a common themein Italian painting. The opulent world surrounding prostitution has always attracted the attention of artists, insofar as this type of portrait offered the prospect of finding ready buyers, and provided an opportunity to establish connections with the wealthy patrons who were familiar with courtesans. Since antiquity, artists have sought out the most famous prostitutes – known as hetaerae – as models. Thus, according to legend, the Greek painter Apelles used Campaspe, Alexander the Great’s mistress, just as the sculptor Praxiteles used the famous Phryne as his model for his ‘Aphrodite of Cnidus’, not to mention Flora, Pompey’s lover, whose portrait adorns the temple dedicated to Castor and Pollux. This tradition was undoubtedly maintained over the centuries before being adopted by Venetian painters.

Courtesans were cultured women; some were even accomplished musicians, and might be invited to dine at the tables of great lords in Italy. There was no shortage of opportunities for painters and courtesans to mingle, whether in the circles of men of letters such as Pietro Aretino, known as l’Aretino, where painters such as Tintoretto and Titian would often find themselves dining in the company of Caterina Sandella, a courtesan and Aretino’s mistress, alongside Angela Zaffetta, who became famous against her will for being the subject of a gang rape in Lorenzo Venier’s poetic work.

The iconography of the courtesan depicted from the waist up—whether these are portraits or figures ‘fatte a capriccio’ remains unclear—was thus very much in vogue in^{sixteenth-century} Venetian art. It was originally popularised not only by Titian (1488/89–1576), but also by Palma the Elder (c. 1480–1528) and later by Pâris Bordone. It is for this reason that the school of Pâris Bordone (1500–1571), that of Giovanni Antonio Pordenone (c. 1483–1539) or even the circle of Palma the Elder have been suggested as possible sources for this painting. Although it is risky to single out just one name, the rendering of the face and the architectural setting are more reminiscent of the works of Pâris Bordone.

This painting is undoubtedly the ‘portrait of a woman by Titian’ referred to by the Count of Sarcus in his notes on the works at the château. Indeed, this portrait clearly echoes Titian’s portraits of courtesans, which circulated throughout Renaissance Europe in the form of engravings. The reference to Titian’s ‘Flora’, a portrait held at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, or to the ‘Woman with a Mirror’ at the Louvre, is particularly striking: a strand of hair falling across the white of her neck, and the same contrast between the white shirt and green fabric seen in *Woman with a Mirror*. This green colour, moreover, is a common feature in many portraits of courtesans, even as , the Consiglio dei Dieci (Council of Ten), attempted—apparently in vain—to impose upon them the wearing of a yellow headscarf. Perhaps the choice of green should be seen as a way of distinguishing the ‘category’ of courtesan, given that Venice recorded more than eleven thousand courtesans in 1509. In a cosmopolitan city such as Venice, with its large number of visiting foreigners, the phenomenon of courtesans was in fact tolerated, if not actively encouraged.