CARLO FRANCESCO NUVOLONE | HEAD OF A WOMAN LOOKING DOWN, BUST LENGTH

Private collector, United States;

By whom anonymously sold, New York, Sotheby's, 5 June 2008, lot 7;

There acquired.

This freely and rapidly painted bust portrait of a woman relates to another, larger panel of a Saint Catherine (or Allegory of Philosphy) by Carlo Francesco Nuvolone in a private collection, Milan.¹ That painting is octagonal in format and shows the same head of a woman, wistfully looking downwards and with the same distinctive diadem on her head, but also includes her hand holding a book and the figure of a young angel in the background to the right. The soft applicaton of the paint and flickering brushwork, particularly evident in the hair of the figure, are typical of the work of Carlo Francesco Nuvolone. The old inscription on the reverse of the panel suggests that the picture was in the past attributed to the artist's father Panfilo Nuvolone, better known today for his still lifes.

1. Oil on octagonal panel, 59 by 51 cm. Private collection, Milan. See F.M. Ferro, Nuvolone una famiglia di pittori nella Milano del '600, Soncino 2003, p. 221, cat. no. cf 188, fig. 48.