Titian, Portrait of a Lady (La Schiavona)
ca 1510-12Paintings sorted by Historical period | Painter | Subject matter | Pigments used
Overview
Medium: Oil
Support: Canvas
Size: 119.4 x 96.5 cm
Art period: High Renaissance
Provenance: Portrait of a Lady (“La Schiavona”)
Mappingpaintings.org
Titian, ‘Portrait of a Lady (La Schiavona)’ is a magnificent work of art showing a timeless allegory of a woman painted when Titian was around 22 years old.
The pigment analysis reveals a very elaborate and refined structure of the purple dress consisting of interspersed red and blue layers. This allowed Titian to depict a woolen fabric woven from the two colours. He employed the same painting technique for the lavender coloured quilted and padded sleeve in ‘Portrait of a Man with a Quilted Sleeve‘.
Pigments
Pigment Analysis
This pigment analysis is based on the work of the scientists at the National Gallery London (1). The scientists employed IR-reflectography (IRR), X-radiography (XRR), and high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) to gain insights into the inner layers of the painting and to identify the pigments present.
1 Purple dress: the first layer consists of carmine kermes lake and a little madder lake mixed with lead white. The second layer contains natural ultramarine and varying amounts of lead white. The top layer is a red lake (carmine and madder) with shadows painted in more red lake mixed with natural ultramarine. The interspersed red and blue layers seem to represent a woolen fabric woven from the two colours (1).
2 White undersleeve: lead white.
References
(1) Jill Dunkerton and Marika Spring, with contributions from Rachel Billinge, Kamilla Kalinina, Rachel Morrison, Gabriella Macaro, David Peggie and Ashok Roy, Titian’s Painting Technique to c.1540, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, volume 34, 2013, pp. 4-31. Available as pdf. Catalog part I pp. 56-61. Available as pdf.
Pigments Used in This Painting
Resources
See the collection of online and offline resources such as books, articles, videos, and websites on Titian in the section ‘Resources on Painters‘
PowerPoint Presentations
Painter in Context: Titian
A richly illustrated presentation on the Venetian Renaissance painter Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) containing information on painting technique, pigments employed, and important written and online resources.
Number of slides: 23
Formats included in the download: PowerPoint Screen Presentation (ppsx) and pdf
Videos
Video: 'Titian’s Early Portraits' by National Gallery London
Publications and Websites
Publications
(1) Jill Dunkerton and Marika Spring, with contributions from Rachel Billinge, Kamilla Kalinina, Rachel Morrison, Gabriella Macaro, David Peggie and Ashok Roy, Titian’s Painting Technique to c.1540, National Gallery Technical Bulletin, volume 34, 2013, pp. 4-31. Available as pdf. Catalog part I pp. 56-61. Available as pdf.
