Portrait of a Lady

About this work

In fifteenth-century Florence women were always painted in strict profile — a format taken from ancient coins and medals. The gaze never turns to the viewer. The pearls, the brocade and the bound hair are not ornament but a display of the family’s property, of which the woman is part. Paolo Uccello was obsessed with perspective; Vasari tells that when his wife called him to bed he answered, "Oh, what a sweet thing this perspective is." The attribution of this painting to him is disputed.

The smallest work in the exhibition, 35 by 45 cm. A strict profile leaves nowhere to hide: all the information sits in one line, and in mosaic that line is made of countable stones.