Central Italian school, circa 1650. "Portrait of a Lady. Oil on canvas. It presents damages in the frame and frame of the 19th century. Measurements: 74 x 59 cm; 88 x 73 cm (frame). Oil on canvas, in which the bust of a woman is represented, following the classical tradition of the portrait painting. The lady in the painting shows all the evidence of belonging to the high nobility; the mastery of the execution and the detailing allow us to appreciate secondary elements such as the attributes that the woman carries, which indicate a high social position. Thus, she wears an outfit in keeping with 17th-century women's fashion. This is defined by the tight bodice and the embroidery on it, as well as the voluminous French sleeves. The artist has focused the light on the woman's face, using resources such as the neutral background and the darkness of the dress, against which the lady's pearly skin stands out. Her skin is almost devoid of adornment, except for the elegant and austere pearl necklace. The woman, who rests one of her arms comfortably on a red velvet cushion, faces the viewer and looks directly at him. This attitude, together with the gesture of the face with a faint smile on her face, is a psychological portrait, in which the artist was not trying to recreate the subject's appearance, but rather the character of the person. In the 18th century, the panorama of European portraiture was varied and wide-ranging, with numerous influences and largely determined by the taste of both the clientele and the painter himself. However, this century saw the emergence of a new concept of portraiture that would evolve throughout the century and unify all the national schools: the desire to capture the personality and character of the human being, beyond his external reality and social rank, in effigy. During the previous century, portraiture had become established among the upper classes and was no longer reserved solely for the court. For this reason, as the 17th and even more so in the 18th century, the formulas of the genre became more relaxed and moved away from the ostentatious and symbolic official representations typical of the Baroque apparatus. On the other hand, the 18th century reacted against the rigid etiquette of the previous century with a more human and individual conception of life, and this was reflected in all areas, from furniture, which became smaller and more comfortable, replacing the large gilded and carved pieces of furniture, to the portrait itself, which came to dispense, as we see here, with all scenographic elements in order to depict the individual rather than the personage. Dimensions 74 x 59 cm; 88 x 73 cm (frame).