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A Blonde Woman

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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A voluptuous woman regards us with an inviting sidelong glance that is both reticent and willing. She unveils her charms, and as she does so offers us a posy of flowers. Her chemise has fallen from her shoulder to reveal her breast, the curve of which is emphasised by the line of her blue silk ribbon. She holds buttercups, primroses and forget-me-nots, the colours of which are echoed in her hair, breast, mantle and ribbon. The flowers may be a poetic allusion to Flora, the goddess of spring; Flora was also a common name for courtesans in sixteenth-century Italy. This painting is typical of a type produced in Venice in the first decades of the 1500s and is related to Titian’s famous beauty Flora (Uffizi, Florence). Palma Vecchio is particularly associated with these half-length images of beautiful fair-haired women, which are not conventional portraits.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

A Blonde Woman

Date

about 1520

Medium

Oil on wood

Measurements

H 77.5 x W 64.1 cm

Accession number

NG3939

Acquisition method

Mond Bequest, 1924

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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