Portrait of a Princess (Pisanello)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Portrait of Princess is a tempera painting on panel attributed to the Italian Late-Gothic master Pisanello. It was probably executed between 1435 and 1449 and is also known as Portrait of a Princess of the House of Este. It is firmly attributed to Pisanello on stylistic grounds and because he stayed in Ferrara in the period, where he also finished a portrait and a celebrative medal of Marquis Leonello d'Este.
The princess is shown in profile against a background of numerous butterflies and columbine flowers. The butterfly near the princess' brow is a symbol of the soul.
The painting is currently housed and exhibited in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France.
The portrait represents a very young woman, hardly more than a girl. Against the background of greenery, with its sprinkling of butterflies, pinks and columbines, the profile is sharply defined. Its outline is yet further accentuated by the style of hairdressing, fashionable at that period, when the hairs on the brow were plucked out and the rest of the hair drawn back from the face to imitate the effect of the medieval hennin.
