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Portrait of a young girl
(c. 1575-1579)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
50.0 × 34.8 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Bequest of Howard Spensley, 1939
Gallery location
Not on display
About this work
This portrait of a young girl is a study for Federico Barocci’s altarpiece, the Madonna del Popolo, 1575–79, now in the Uffizi Gallery, Florence. In the altarpiece, the child’s features are given to an angel prominently seated to the left of Christ. Working drawings for the altarpiece indicate that Barocci initially conceived this figure as a boy holding a trumpet, then changed his mind and began work on this likeness of a young girl. Intriguingly, the distinctive jewel in the girl’s headpiece here is worn by one of the adult women in the lower half of the final painting. It also appears in other works by Barocci, so was probably a studio prop.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
553-4
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Dame Carol Colburn-Grigor CBE through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Human Figures Portraits
Subjects (specific)
busts (general, figures) children (people by age group) girls three-quarter views