A woman wearing a crimson-red brocade dress and gold jewelry fills most of this vertical portrait, but her right hand, on our left, rests on the shoulder of a young boy tucked into the lower left corner of the panel. The woman and boy both have pale, white skin, and both face and look out at us against an emerald-green curtain that falls behind them. The woman has brown eyes, a straight nose, full pink lips, smooth cheeks, and a long neck. Her brown hair is pulled back under a turban densely embroidered with gold. The woman’s dress has puffed shoulders and decorative slashes on the sleeves. One gold chain rests on her throat and the other falls over her chest. She wears long gold earrings, a gold belt, and two gold rings. She holds a brown leather glove in her left hand. The boy’s face is even with the woman’s waist, and he raises his left hand to hold hers, which is draped over his shoulder. He has curly blond hair and dark eyes, and he wears black with a ruffled white shirt just visible at his collar.
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A woman wearing a crimson-red brocade dress and gold jewelry fills most of this vertical portrait, but her right hand, on our left, rests on the shoulder of a young boy tucked into the lower left corner of the panel. The woman and boy both have pale, white skin, and both face and look out at us against an emerald-green curtain that falls behind them. The woman has brown eyes, a straight nose, full pink lips, smooth cheeks, and a long neck. Her brown hair is pulled back under a turban densely embroidered with gold. The woman’s dress has puffed shoulders and decorative slashes on the sleeves. One gold chain rests on her throat and the other falls over her chest. She wears long gold earrings, a gold belt, and two gold rings. She holds a brown leather glove in her left hand. The boy’s face is even with the woman’s waist, and he raises his left hand to hold hers, which is draped over his shoulder. He has curly blond hair and dark eyes, and he wears black with a ruffled white shirt just visible at his collar.

National Gallery of Art · Painting

A Young Woman and Her Little Boy

Agnolo Bronzino

Date
c. 1540
Medium
oil on panel
Dimensions
overall: 99.5 x 76 cm (39 3/16 x 29 15/16 in.) framed: 134.6 x 111.1 x 6.7 cm (53 x 43 3/4 x 2 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1942.9.6
Credit line
Widener Collection
Time span
1501 to 1550
Department
CIS-R

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • Florentine
  • family
  • portrait
  • Renaissance
  • Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century
Provenance

Possibly Baron Achille Seillière, Paris, until 1873;[1] probably by inheritance to Jeanne Marguérite Seillière, Princesse de Sagan, [later Duchesse de Talleyrand-Périgord], Paris, probably by 1873 until at least 1896.[2] (Cottier and Co., London and New York); sold 1905 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA. [1] Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:92. [2] According to B. Berenson, _Florentine Painters of the Renaissance_, New York, 1896. [3] According to notes by Edith Standen, Widener collection curator, in NGA curatorial records.

NGA object ID 1143. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.