Giovanna Fratellini
(Florence, 1666 - 1731)
SELF-PORTRAIT
pastels on paper, 74x54 cm
AUTORITRATTO
pastelli su carta, cm 74x57
Provenance
- Florence, Countess Tamara Rucellai De Larderel;
- Florence, Pandolfini Casa d'Aste, Vendita all'asta dei beni appartenenti all'eredità C.ssa Tamara Rucellai De Larderel, 24 - 28 February 1986, lot. no. 694 (as French school, 18th century).
A refined self-portrait executed in pastel by Giovanna Fratellini, one of the most important Florentine painters of the 17th and 18th centuries and among the first Italian female artists to distinguish herself in the use of this technique. The work depicts the artist in the style of an official self-portrait, with a direct and self-assured gaze that underscores her professional prestige, achieved in an artistic milieu traditionally dominated by male figures.
A student of Livio Mehus and later of Pier Dandini, Giovanna Fratellini was admitted to the Accademia del Disegno in 1706, distinguishing herself as a sought-after portraitist at the Medici court. Particularly appreciated for her pastel portraits, she played a decisive role in popularizing this technique in Florence during the early decades of the 18th century.
The work highlights the most characteristic qualities of her oeuvre: the delicate chromatic modulation, the soft rendering of the skin, and the refined depiction of fabrics, combined with a careful psychological exploration of the face. The freshness of the execution and the sensitivity to light confirm the artist’s full artistic maturity, whose work reflects the elegant and cultured taste of late-Medici Florence.
Giovanna Fratellini’s self-portraits are particularly rare and constitute significant evidence of the professional success of Italian female artists between the 17th and 18th centuries, as well as serving as an important document of pastel portraiture in the Florentine context. The painting presented here offers an original interpretation of the self-portrait genre, depicting the artist not merely as the subject of the portrait, but in the very act of creation: Fratellini is shown intently painting a small portrait of her son Lorenzo Maria, born of her marriage to Giuliano Fratellini in 1690.
An identical version to the one presented here is housed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence and is also reproduced in a contemporary engraving, which attests to the fame achieved by both the work and the painter.