DOI chapter:
Chapter VIII: Female Portraits
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.62110#0164
CHAPTER VIII
FEMALE PORTRAITS
One of the most beautiful portraits of the fifteenth century
is that of a lady in the collection of Prince Lichtenstein,
Vienna. It represents a young girl presumably of about
twenty, with a typically Florentine face, interesting rather
than strictly beautiful, set against a bush of juniper, whose
sharp needles accentuated against the sky contrast in the
manner peculiar to Verrocchio with the curves of the
tendril-like curls on the cheeks and the tranquil sweetness
of the expression. The panel has been much shortened,
and it is probable that, like the Mona Lisa of Leonardo,
the hands of the sitter originally rested before her on a
balustrade. The fact of this truncation is ascertained by
the existence on the back of a decorative painting, for-
merly in the centre of the panel, but of which in its present
state the lower part is missing. It represents a branch of
juniper tied with a scroll, on which is inscribed the motto
Virtvtem forma decorat, framed in branches of bay and
palm, on a background painted in imitation of porphyry.
This decoration is cut off just below the scroll, which was
originally in the centre, and the measurements show that
as much as from twenty-five to thirty centimetres of the
panel is missing. The damage to the picture is greater
FEMALE PORTRAITS
One of the most beautiful portraits of the fifteenth century
is that of a lady in the collection of Prince Lichtenstein,
Vienna. It represents a young girl presumably of about
twenty, with a typically Florentine face, interesting rather
than strictly beautiful, set against a bush of juniper, whose
sharp needles accentuated against the sky contrast in the
manner peculiar to Verrocchio with the curves of the
tendril-like curls on the cheeks and the tranquil sweetness
of the expression. The panel has been much shortened,
and it is probable that, like the Mona Lisa of Leonardo,
the hands of the sitter originally rested before her on a
balustrade. The fact of this truncation is ascertained by
the existence on the back of a decorative painting, for-
merly in the centre of the panel, but of which in its present
state the lower part is missing. It represents a branch of
juniper tied with a scroll, on which is inscribed the motto
Virtvtem forma decorat, framed in branches of bay and
palm, on a background painted in imitation of porphyry.
This decoration is cut off just below the scroll, which was
originally in the centre, and the measurements show that
as much as from twenty-five to thirty centimetres of the
panel is missing. The damage to the picture is greater