TERZIO, Francesco (1523-1591)

Archduchess Barbara

1565
Oil on canvas
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

ARCIMBOLDO, Giuseppe (1526-1593)

Maximilian II, His Wife and Three Children

1563
Oil on canvas, 240 x 188 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

Portrayed next to Archduke Maximilian II is his wife Maria of Spain and three of their children. In front is the oldest daughter, Anna, the later wife of Philip II of Spain, behind are the sons Rudolf, later Emperor Rudolf II and in the cradle Archduke Ernst.

VERONESE, Paolo (1528-1588)

Portrait of a Venetian Woman (La Belle Nani)

c. 1560
Oil on canvas, 119 x 103 cm
Musée du Louvre, Paris

ANGUISSOLA, Sofonisba (1530-1625)

Portrait of the Artist’s Sisters Playing Chess

1555
Oil on canvas, 72 x 97 cm
Muzeum Narodowe, Poznan

BORDONE, Paris (1500-1571)

Portrait of a Woman

1550s
Oil on canvas, 107 x 83 cm
Galleria Palatina (Palazzo Pitti), Florence

The rich red silk is alive in every crease, while the smooth bodice undoubtedly restrained only by a hinged iron cage, invented about this time.

BORDONE, Paris (1500-1571)

Young Woman at Her Toilet

c. 1550
Oil on canvas, 102 x 81 cm
Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

TIZIANO Vecellio (1490-1576)

Eleonora Gonzaga

c. 1538
Oil on canvas, 114 x 102 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

[…]Eleonora Gonzaga sits primly in her chair, immobile within her highly detailed but much less lovingly depicted court dress. Her pet dog lies bored on a table in front of a window.

PARMIGIANINO (1503-1540)

Portrait of a Young Lady

c. 1535
Oil on canvas, 139 x 88 cm
Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples

The lady is dressed in elegant clothes, with a yellow dress made of atlas silk. The top is patterned with lozenges, while from the hips down she is wearing a narrow white apron. Over her right shoulder, which curiously is far too broad, she is wearing a pine-marten fur stole complete with head.

BACCHIACCA (1494-1557)

Woman with a Cat

1540s
Oil on poplar, 26 x 19 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

This casual small picture of a woman holding a cat shows the Renaissance fondness for exotic pets; women were also depicted with squirrels and rabbits close to hand.

PONTORMO, Jacopo (1494-1557)

Portrait of a Lady in Red

1530s
Oil on wood, 90 x 71 cm
Städelsches Kunstinstitut, Frankfurt

FOSCHI, Pierfrancesco di Jacopo (1502-1567)

Portrait of a Lady

1530-35
Oil on panel, 101 x 79 cm
Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

LOTTO, Lorenzo (1480-1556)

Portrait of Laura da Pola

1544
Oil on canvas, 90 x 75 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Rather than painting monarchs and prelates, as did Titian, Lotto portrayed the local nobility, fixing their traits with an acute eye. There is no rhetorical decorative detail but only the existential truth of the subject.

LOTTO, Lorenzo (1480-1556)

Portrait of a Lady as Lucretia

1530-32
Oil on canvas, 96 x 111 cm
National Gallery, London

According to Roman legend, Lucretia, who was the wife of Lucius Tarquinius Collatinus, was raped by the son of the Roman king - a dishonour which subsequently resulted in her suicide. The event is supposed to have precipitated the collapse of the Etruscan royal line and thus to have led to the founding of the Roman Republic.
In the 16th and 17th century Lucretia was frequently portrayed as a symbol of purity.

BRONZINO, Agnolo (1503-1572)

Laura Battiferri

1555-60
Oil on canvas, 83 x 60 cm
Palazzo Vecchio, Florence

*Laura Battiferri was a famous Italian Renaissance poetess. She was the wife of Bartolomeo Ammanati the sculptor, and friends with the poet Torquato Tasso and the painter Bronzino.

BRONZINO, Agnolo (1503-1572)

Portrait of a Lady

c. 1550
Oil on wood, 109 x 85 cm
Galleria Sabauda, Turin