#PietroRotari (1707-1762), who was #BornOnThisDay
Portrait of a Young Lady with a Lace Cap
ca. 1750-6
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
#Rotari

#PietroRotari (1707-1762), who was #BornOnThisDay
Portrait of Princess Catherine of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Beck
ca. 1761
Norton Simon Museum
#Rotari

#PietroRotari (1707-1762), who was #BornOnThisDay
Portrait of a Girl
ca. 1753-5
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
#Rotari

#PietroRotari (1707-1762), who was #BornOnThisDay
Portrait of an old woman with fur hat
ca. 1753-5
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
#Rotari

#PietroRotari (1707-1762), who was #BornOnThisDay
Portrait of Yekaterina Vorontsova-Dashkova (1743-1810)
18th century
Musée Lambinet
#Rotari

#PietroRotari (1707-1762), who was #BornOnThisDay
Portrait of Countess A.M. Vorontsova
ca. 1756-62
Hermitage Museum
#Rotari

#PietroRotari (1707-1762), who was #BornOnThisDay
Portrait of an Abbot
18th century
Hermitage Museum
#Rotari

This beguiling pastel depicts a young woman holding a folded fan. Sumptuously turned out in silk and lace, diamonds and pearls, she smiles enigmatically and returns our gaze with startling directness. Her face is delicately rendered, with soft shading in pastel tones that highlight her features: a gentle curve to her nose, slightly upturned lips suggesting a mischievous mood, and calm, large eyes that look directly at us. Her expression is seems to be full of secrets. Her hair is styled in a neat, pulled-back manner, adorned with a small, delicate ornament resembling a cluster of blue flowers. She wears pearl drop earrings that dangle subtly against her pale skin. Her clothing is a light blue, fine fabric dress with a subtle, ribbed texture decorated with a pale, lighter blue floral pattern, almost like tiny scattered blossoms. The neckline is low, revealing a hint of her chest. Underneath the low-cut dress, she wears a sheer, white lace trim at the collar and at the neckline of the bodice. She holds a silver fan, slender and seemingly made of delicate metalwork, vertically in front of her mouth. Her fingers gently grasp the fan’s handle, her hand resting near her chest. There is a small ring visible on her pinky finger. The overall color palette of the painting is muted and soft, with pastel shades of blue, white, and pale skin tones dominating. It's not a particular likeness of a specific individual, but an example of Rotari's "testine" or "teste di carrattere": images portraying mostly courtiers and country girls, reading, sleeping, laughing, and crying, dressed in Saxon, Polish, and Russian national dress. Rotari produced these testine in volume, most often in oils, though also in pastel. Descended from 17-century Dutch tronie pictures and French Academic têtes d'expression, but endowed by Rotari with a specifically 18-century wit and élan, these pictures brought him steady royal patronage and have became virtually synonymous with his name.

"Young Woman with a Fan" by Pietro Antonio Rotari (Italian) - Pastel, on blue-green paper, mounted on canvas / c. 1751-1756 - Getty Museum (Los Angeles, California) #WomenInArt #art #ArtText #Smile #PietroAntonioRotari #Rotari #GettyMuseum #TheGetty #womensart #artwork #Portraitofawoman #ItalianArt