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• 15th Century Italian Painting

• Portrait of a Lady , circa 1490
• oil on canvas transferred from panel
• 17 5/8 in. x 13 5/8 in. (44.77 cm x 34.61 cm)

• Lorenzo Costa  (probably Ferrara, circa 1460 - 1535, Mantua)
• Italian

• Museum Purchase: Currier Funds, 1947.4

• On View

At a time when the church was commissioning religious art on a large scale, the emerging merchant class and nobility, wanting to celebrate their individual achievements, desired images of themselves. The Renaissance belief in the greatness of humanity significantly contributed to the rise of portraiture. Painted at approximately the same time as Madonna and Child attributed to the circle of Perugino, this work reflects the rise in the genre's popularity during the Renaissance.

The sitter is a lady of notable rank and fortune. Her jewels, noble bearing, and Spanish-style clothes, popular in Italian courts around 1500, indicate her importance. She exemplifies the ideal female type sought after by Renaissance artists, and it is difficult to distinguish her from the Peruginesque Madonna when the images are compared. Although her identification is unknown, she remains a charming and enigmatic young lady and an excellent example of Costa's refined, courtly art.

Costa worked first in the city of Bologna and then for the rest of his life in Mantua as a painter to the Bentivoglio family, where he gained an excellent reputation as a portraitist. The majority of Costa's work was destroyed during a siege of Mantua in 1630 and this picture is one of only a few to survive.