GARZONI, Giovanna
(b. 1600, Ascoli Piceno, d. 1670, Roma)

Self-Portrait

c. 1650
Pastel and charcoal on paper, 495 x 380 mm
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library, Washington

This self-portrait comprises the frontispiece of an illustrated herbarium. The portrait depicts the artist as an approximately fifty- or sixty-year-old woman. However, it is assumed that the sheets of the herbarium were produced earlier, since, according to a document, the herbarium was commissioned in 1616 from the sixteen-year-old Garzoni by a pharmacist originally from Delft. It is possible that the self-portrait was inserted together with the botanical sheets as the frontispiece of the herbarium at a later date.




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