DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.68073#0094
68
OLD WORLD MASTERS
“Art coulds’t thou but portray character and the mind, then there
would be no picture in the whole world more beautiful than this.”
Such is the translation of the legend inscribed in capital letters on
the cartel:
“Ars ultinam mores animumque effingere posses
Pulchrior in terr is nulla labella for el”
with the date MCCCCLXXXVHI.
The charms of Giovanna degli Albizzi, who was married to Lorenzo
Tornabuoni in i486, were sung by all the poets of Florence. Giovanna
came of the noted Albizzi family, famous for wealth and rank and for
leading the party of Nobles (Grandi) against the Medici, whom they
considered upstarts and enemies of the aristocratic faction in Florence.
By a former marriage, however, the Albizzi had become connected
with the Medici, for the wife of Piero de’ Medici (il Gottoso) was
Lucrezia Tornabuoni, one of the most accomplished women of the
age and whose portrait by Botticelli hangs to-day in the Kaiser
Friedrich Museum in Berlin. Giovanna’s husband, Lorenzo Tornabu-
oni (Lucrezia Tornabuoni’s nephew), was, therefore, the first cousin
of Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici.
Subsequent to the ownership by the Tornabuoni and Pandolfini.
families, the portrait represented here passed to a private Collection
in Paris and thence to the late Mr. Henry Willett of Brighton, England;
to the famous Collection of Mr. Rodolphe Kann of Paris and, finally,
to that of Mr. J. P. Morgan.
The picture is painted on a wooden panel (29^ x 19X inches).
Standing in profile to the left and against an architectural back-
ground, the lady appears at half-length. She wears a rich dress of
gold brocade of a handsome and decorative pattern with square neck,
the sleeves of a different material, dark-red in color and having yellow
diamond-shaped compartments bearing a floral design in the centre.
A handsome pendant, consisting of a ruby with three pearls, hangs from
a fine black silk cord around her neck. Her hair falls in light, wavy
tresses over her temples and covers her ears. In the recess at the back
is placed a cluster of precious stones. On the right is a Book of Hours,
and above is looped a necklace of coral beads. All of these things
OLD WORLD MASTERS
“Art coulds’t thou but portray character and the mind, then there
would be no picture in the whole world more beautiful than this.”
Such is the translation of the legend inscribed in capital letters on
the cartel:
“Ars ultinam mores animumque effingere posses
Pulchrior in terr is nulla labella for el”
with the date MCCCCLXXXVHI.
The charms of Giovanna degli Albizzi, who was married to Lorenzo
Tornabuoni in i486, were sung by all the poets of Florence. Giovanna
came of the noted Albizzi family, famous for wealth and rank and for
leading the party of Nobles (Grandi) against the Medici, whom they
considered upstarts and enemies of the aristocratic faction in Florence.
By a former marriage, however, the Albizzi had become connected
with the Medici, for the wife of Piero de’ Medici (il Gottoso) was
Lucrezia Tornabuoni, one of the most accomplished women of the
age and whose portrait by Botticelli hangs to-day in the Kaiser
Friedrich Museum in Berlin. Giovanna’s husband, Lorenzo Tornabu-
oni (Lucrezia Tornabuoni’s nephew), was, therefore, the first cousin
of Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici.
Subsequent to the ownership by the Tornabuoni and Pandolfini.
families, the portrait represented here passed to a private Collection
in Paris and thence to the late Mr. Henry Willett of Brighton, England;
to the famous Collection of Mr. Rodolphe Kann of Paris and, finally,
to that of Mr. J. P. Morgan.
The picture is painted on a wooden panel (29^ x 19X inches).
Standing in profile to the left and against an architectural back-
ground, the lady appears at half-length. She wears a rich dress of
gold brocade of a handsome and decorative pattern with square neck,
the sleeves of a different material, dark-red in color and having yellow
diamond-shaped compartments bearing a floral design in the centre.
A handsome pendant, consisting of a ruby with three pearls, hangs from
a fine black silk cord around her neck. Her hair falls in light, wavy
tresses over her temples and covers her ears. In the recess at the back
is placed a cluster of precious stones. On the right is a Book of Hours,
and above is looped a necklace of coral beads. All of these things