Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 93
Set against a subtly animated dark ground, the effigy represents an important addition to Leoni’s
activity in small-scale painting in Rome. Its particularly close relationship to the the Portrait of a
young lady with necklace and pearl pendants at Chantilly (fig. 2) is noteworthy: that miniature
appears to portray the same woman, shown there against a pale blue ground imitating painted
stone.² In addition to the difference in the colour of the dress—here rendered in a violet hue—one
further detail distinguishes the present work from the Chantilly example: the double-strand pearl
necklace tied at the sitter’s breast, comparable to that worn by the Lady in the British Museum. The
two works should therefore be regarded as distinct autograph originals, conceived within a similar
metal mounting.
Fig. 2. Ottavio Leoni, Portrait of a young lady wearing
a pearl necklace, c. 1615. oil on copper, 5.5 x 4.3 cm.
Musée Condé, Chantilly. © RMN - Grand Palais
Fig. 3. Verso of Fig. 2.
The miniature now in France bears, on the reverse, an early attribution to Leoni, together with a
number, now almost illegible, which evidently referred to a larger series of painted likenesses (fig.
3). The young woman portrayed was likely someone within the artist’s personal circle, given her
repeated appearance in his portrait oeuvre. Within the densely populated
