Portrait of a Young Woman

Pier Francesco Foschi (Pier Francesco Toschi)

1520–39 · Metalpoint, touches of red chalk, on gray prepared paper. · Robert Lehman Collection

This delicate bust-length study for a portrait of a woman, who gazes directly at the viewer, can be dated to the early sixteenth century, based on the style of her clothing. Similar headdresses and garments with a square-necked bodice and puffed sleeves appear in Florentine portraits of this period. The drawing has been associated with the school of the Mannerist painters Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino and may have been executed by Pier Francesco Foschi, who, along with these two masters, was a pupil of Andrea del Sarto, and was well known as a portraitist.

Artist

Pier Francesco Foschi (Pier Francesco Toschi)

Date

1520–39

Medium

Metalpoint, touches of red chalk, on gray prepared paper.

Department

Robert Lehman Collection

Credit line

Robert Lehman Collection, 1975