Francesco Torbido (Venice, about 1482 - about 1562, Verona)
Portrait of a Lady in a Turban, about 1516-1518
Oil on canvas , 80 x 66 cm (31 1/2 x 26 in.)
This is a waist-length portrait of a light-skinned young woman in sixteenth-century Italian clothing. She is wearing a black velvet gown with flashes of turquoise satin on her slashed sleeves over a translucent white chemise. She is seated, turned a bit to the left, so that we see all of her face except her right ear. Her head is ever so slightly cocked and her brown eyes directly engage the viewer. She has a full face and neck, long straight nose, and a small, closed lip smile. She has a spit curl of hair placed just in front of her visible ear. The rest of her walnut brown hair is flattened and parted severely in the center until, at the crown of her head, it is gathered into a brown circular turban with blue gray netted ribbon, forming a wide halo shape. Her facial complexion is rosy and her neck, shoulder, and visible cleavage is milky white. She wears a long, heavy gold chain. Her blouse is rimmed with gathered white lace that is repeated on her right wrist. She wears a tan leather glove with fraying red stitching on her right hand. The wide square neckline and severe black color of her broad shouldered velvet gown adds to her sense of power. The plain painted background of taupe-gray on the right side and blue black on the right increase her mystery.
Titian Room
Commentary
The costume and schuffa—the turban-like hairstyle formed of braids— identify the woman in this portrait as someone who was well-off and lived in northern Italy, perhaps Bergamo or Verona, in the early 16th century. Isabella Stewart Gardner purchased this painting as a portrait of Isabella d’Este, a celebrated Renaissance collector she admired. Gardner considered this purchase from a photograph sent to her by her art advisor Bernard Berenson. Initially she was worried that the poorly rendered hand was “offensive” but Berenson convinced her there was nothing wrong with the picture. When the painting arrived in Boston, Isabella wrote “Isabella d’Este… is most delightful. She and Rembrandt held quite a little reception this afternoon.”Francesco Torbido, called Il Moro, was a Venetian artist of Afro-European descent. He trained with the painter Giorgione and, around 1500, left Venice for Verona where he took up residence with a local noble family who became his patrons. He was awarded prestigious commissions, including frescoes for the choir of Verona cathedral.