Portrait Of A Lady by Angelika Kauffman was created in 1781 – 1782 and is in Gemaldegalerie Alte Meister Dresden. The size of the work is 91,5 x 71,5 cm and is made of oil on canvas.
About the Work
The Swiss painter Angelika Kauffmann was one of the most renowned artists of the 18th century, famous for her portraits and history paintings. In the Dresden painting, she draws on the popular figure of the Vestal Virgin, one of the revered priestesses of the Roman goddess Vesta. In Vesta’s temple, they tended the fire, which is alluded to by the oil lamp in the painting. Their chaste lifestyle made them a suitable subject for suggesting the spiritual purity of the sitter.
The Vestal Virgin, dressed in immaculate white and partially veiled, keeps her eyes modestly shaded. The portrait thus reflects the ideal of bourgeois womanhood at the time, characterized by virtue and modesty.
The Swiss painter Angelika Kauffmann was one of the best-known artists of the 18th century, famous for her portraits and history paintings. In the Dresden painting she revisits the popular figure of the “Vestal Virgin”, one of the revered priestesses of the Roman goddess Vesta. In her temple they cultivated the fire; the oil lamp in the painting is a reference to this. Owing to their chastity, they were well suited as symbolic representations of spiritual purity.
The Vestal Virgin, dressed in immaculate white clothes and partially veiled, keeps her eyes demurely averted and in shade. This reflects the contemporary ideal of the middle-class woman as virtuous and modest.
