Head of a Girl
Artist/Maker
DatesMade: Made probably 17th century
Material / Technique
DimensionsMått 42 cm h x w x d: Ram 50 x 50 x 3 cm
Inventory numberNM 146
AcqusitionTransferred 1866 from Kongl. Museum (Martelli 1804)
Other titlesTitle (sv): Ung kvinna Title (en): Head of a Girl Previous: Young Woman
DescriptionCatalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 15: FORMER INV. NOS.: 415 (M. 1796–97); 163 (F. 1798); 408 (M. 1804); KM 970. TECHNICAL NOTES: The support consists of a thick, circular wooden panel (hardwood, maybe poplar). It is not bevelled, and there are tool marks on the verso. The panel is worm-eaten. The ground is thin and red and covers the whole support. The paint layer is flaking, following the direction of the wood grain. UV fluorescence reveals numerous retouches, especially in the background. The varnish is very thick and yellowed. PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804. BIBLIOGRAPHY: NM Cat. 1867, p. 10 (as Reni, school of); Sander 1872–76, III, p. 131, no. 408 (as Caravaggio); NM Cat. 1990, p. 421 (as anonymous, 17th century); Prytz and Eriksson 2010, pp. 77–86. This young girl has her head turned to the right and her eyes raised, possibly towards the sky. She is dressed in a light purple tunic, which originally had a much deeper and more intense tone.¹ This painting is probably a copy of a detail from a larger composition. It is not a conventional portrait, but rather a representation of a biblical or historical heroine.² This tondo is one of a series of four paintings on round wood panels (NM 147, NM 148 and NM 7268, cat. nos. 16–18). The four panels have approximately the same diameter (42 cm) and seem to be executed from the same piece of wood, although ground layers of paint left on the outsides of the panels indicate that they were executed as separate tondi and did not originally form a larger painting. While there are similarities in style and colour between the four paintings, the subjects differ. The panels may have been produced as copies of heads from different originals, or as minor figures from the same scene. This makes them similar to the Dutch tronies, heads that certainly could have been painted after a model, but are considered to be generic portraits or genre paintings in a portrait format. Judging from the compositions, the shadows, the flesh tones and the firm brushstrokes, these panels are executed by a skilled painter. The present tondo, together with its three companion pieces, has an early attribution to Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio,³ which was changed to School of Guido Reni when the panels were incorporated in the collection of the new Nationalmuseum in 1865.⁴ As this painting has some similarities to female representations by Guido, for example his paintings of Cleopatra,⁵ it may have been the one that resulted in the new attribution of the series. But that attribution is not very convincing, and the painterly qualities of the girl’s features and hair are closer to the naturalistic style of the Caravaggisti. At present it is not possible to establish a more precise attribution, but a probable original provenance is the early 17th-century Rome of Caravaggio. JE 1 The original colour is still visible under the decorative frame, which is a later addition. 2 The painting has been analysed by Stina Odlinder Haubo, unpublished paper, Gotland University, 2010. 3 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet e Martelli (à Rome). [End]
Motif categoryPortrait
Collection
TechniquePainting
Object category
Keyword
External links