PIER FRANCESCO CITTADINI | PORTRAIT OF A LADY, THREE-QUARTER LENGTH, IN AN ELABORATELY DECORATED SILK RED DRESS WITH WHITE LACE AND A SHEER FALLING COLLAR

The Milanese born Cittadini traveled to Bologna in the early 1630s, when he entered the studio of Guido Reni. His career would ultimately take him to Rome, where he would begin to develop as a multi-faceted professional painter, capable of producing high quality pictures in a variety of genres, including portraiture, still life, and landscapes. His portraits have a characteristically Lombard sense of realism, combined with an acute attention to detail in the elaborate lace and silk costumes of his female sitters. This specific approach to portraiture would have a direct impact on the younger artists to rise to prominence in his wake, perhaps most notably Jacob Ferdinand Voet.