Portrait of a noblewoman. Attributed to Carlo Ceresa. About 1640.

Portrait of a noblewoman. Attributed to Carlo Ceresa.
Oil on canvas.

Size cm 110x86,5cm with frame
About 1640.
This portrait depicts a middle-aged woman with great realism, typical of Lombard and Bergamo painters in particular. Carlo Ceresa, probable author of this unsigned painting, had studied with Daniele Crespi, a Lombard painter, from whom he inherited a way of painting with important shadows, characters with a melancholy-austerity attitude. But compared to his master, who died of the plague in 1630, he added a highly decorative coloristic vein, it is said that he was influenced by Venetian painters.

In fact, there is a very interesting dialogue between elegance, magnificence and the bright red color of the dress with very rich trimmings and, at the same time, a dramatic light and chiaroscuro of the hands and face, which give a very serious, late Caravaggesque expression to the woman portrayed.
Another point that suggests that it is a portrait painted by Ceresa are lady's hands, the shape and movements of her fingers, which tick a splendid black ribbon that the woman has on her chest an hold gloves in another.
The bright white of the sleeves is painted with great depth and expressiveness.
In a non-ancient handcrafted frame in carved and gilded wood.