A Female Martyr Saint

A Female Martyr Saint

A Female Martyr Saint
Artist:Carlo Francesco Nuvolone (Italian, Milan 1609–1662 Milan)
Date:ca. 1650
Medium:Oil on wood
Dimensions:20 x 16 3/8 in. (50.8 x 41.6 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Bequest of Anna Mont, in memory of Frederick Mont, 2010
Accession Number:2012.100.2

The female saint portrayed in this painting is unidentified. The palm she holds in her left hand classifies her as a martyr. Nuvolone was one of the most prominent painters of the mid-seventeenth century in Milan. He is the typical exponent of the Lombard style of painting, characterized by the strong contrast between light and shadow, and the distinctive sweetness in his figures.
Catalogue Entry
Carlo Francesco Nuvolone is one of the most prominent Milanese painters of the mid-seventeenth century. A member of a dynasty of artists, he was close to painters such as Daniele Crespi, Giulio Cesare Procaccini, and Francesco Cairo. He is a typical exponent of the Lombard style of painting, characterized by the strong chiaroscuro and a distinctive sweetness in his figures. His art has often been linked to that of the Spanish artist Murillo, even though there are no known links between the two painters. The Italian art historian Roberto Longhi considered Nuvolone a herald for nineteenth-century Romantic painting in Lombardy.
This picture was first seen by Roberto Longhi (1965) in a private collection in Basel, Switzerland, and was subsequently with Frederick Mont in New York.
The female saint represented in the painting is unidentified. The palm she holds in her right hand classifies her as a martyr. Stylistically the painting is very close to other works by Nuvolone from the mid-seventeenth century. In particular, the head of the saint is almost identical to that of Esther in the Scene from the Life of Esther in the Musée des Augustins in Toulouse, to another Esther in a private collection in Milan, and to the Woman in the Museo Cerralbo in Madrid (Ferro 2003, p. 209, nos. cf 144–46). Nuvolone probably based all four paintings on a drawing after the same model.
Xavier F. Salomon 2011

Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org