Portrait of a Young Woman Holding a Rose
- Date
- 1675
- Object type
- painting
- Technique
- oil
- Material
- wood
- Dimensions
- 26,7 x 20,7 cm
- Acquisition date
- 1774
- Location
- The Palace on the Isle - Picture Gallery, ground floor
- Marks and inscriptions
- red number 56 of the Stanisław August collection, bottom right
- Place of Origin
- Leyden (Netherlands)
- Owner
- National Museum in Warsaw
- Acquisition name
- deposit; inv. no. M.Ob.2122
- Museum number
- Dep 934
This painting, probably together with its pendant (lost), is recorded in two undated notes (one handwritten by Stanisław August), probably from 1774, with a list of several paintings offered to the Polish King, the prices of which were negotiated. …
The pendant, Portrait of a Man with an Open Book, painted on panel, of the same dimensions, bearing the signature and date: P. V. Slingelant 1675, lost during the Second World War … was in 1996 recorded in the antique shop of Haboldt & Co., Paris/New York … . It depicts a man standing next to a globe of the heavens and resting his hand on an open book with an anatomical depiction of a skull. …
The iconography of the pair of portraits suggests we are looking at a married couple. The woman, in fact a lady—her dress characteristic of the fashion in the first half of the 1670s indicating her high social status—has a cap on her head. The rose she holds in her hand is a common symbol of virtue and love, the attribute of Venus. There is a statue of the goddess on the balustrade in the garden (Venus Cesarini; original by Giambologna from c. 1580) . In the background of the portrait of the man—who wears a dressing gown, the informal attire of a person of high society when at home—there is a sculpture of a putto (probably holding a shield) in the garden; perhaps it is Amor. The accoutrements accompanying the man also depict him as a scholar. … [D. Juszczak, H. Małachowicz, The Stanisław August Collection of Paintings at the Royal Łazienki. Catalogue, Royal Łazienki Museum, Warsaw 2016, no. 96, pp. 353–355.]