Millais, John Everett (1829-1896)
Portia
1886
Oil on canvas, 125.1 x 83.8 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
In Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, the heroine Portia disguises herself in lawyer’s robes and outwits the moneylender Shylock in court, preventing him from extracting his infamous loan penalty of a “pound of flesh.”
See also:
• Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)