BACICCIO
(b. 1639, Genova, d. 1709, Roma)

Portrait of a Lady

1674-76
Oil on canvas, 73 x 59 cm
Private collection

This portrayal of a lady, head and shoulders, is an excellent example of Baciccio's portraiture style. Noteworrthy is the unusual position of the hand, which arches from the wrist, the fingers with long and supple and the smallest extended upwards. It is in fact a quotation from the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini: this gesture was adopted for the figure of Truth from the funeral monument to Alessandro VII in Saint Peter's, Rome.