Ritratto di un prelato (c.1580)

Fontana, Lavinia (1552-1614)

Ritratto di un prelato (Portrait of a Prelate)
c.1580
Oil on copper, diameter 14 cm
Metropolitan Museum of ArtNew York

The daughter of a leading painter in Bologna, Lavinia Fontana became the most famous woman artist of her day and much appreciated both in Rome and in Madrid by Philip II. Miniature portraits such as this one were in vogue: El Greco seems to have made a specialty of them during his years in Rome (157077). (MET)