BUGIARDINI, Giuliano
(b. 1475, Firenze, d. 1554, Firenze)

Portrait of a Woman, called "The Nun"

1506-10
Oil on wood, 65 x 48 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Giuliano Bugiardini, following the teachings of the three great masters of his time, Leonardo, Raphael and Michelangelo (of whom he was a friend and assistant), developed a style not lacking in individual character, which is manifested here in the sharpness of the line and the use of plain, metallic colour tones.

Ferdinando III of Lorrain, Grand Duke of Tuscany, bought the picture in 1819 as a masterwork by Leonardo da Vinci, but the attribution has been soon after changed and it is still not certain: among the artists suggested there are Mariotto Albertinelli and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, besides Giuliano Bugiardini who is actually the author accepted. To the convent of Sant'Jacopo a Ripoli, represented on the right in the landscape, is due the surname of Nun given to the woman in the nineteenth century when the portrait of this unknown beauty was referred to as "Leonardo's nun". Under the left arch of the loggia it has been recognized the colonnade of the Ospedale di San Paolo, near the Santo Spirito's church, without the bell-tower not yet completed around 1510.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 4 minutes):
Franz Schubert: Die Junge Nonne (The Young Nun) D 828