Portrait of Maria Portinari

Portrait of Maria Portinari is a small c. 1470–72 painting by

Hans Memling in tempera and oil on wood. It portrays Maria
Maddalena Baroncelli, about whom very little is known. She is
about 14 years old, and depicted shortly before her wedding to
the Italian banker Tommaso Portinari. Maria is dressed in the
height of late fifteenth-century fashion, with a long black hennin
with a transparent veil and an elaborate jewel-studded necklace.
Her headdress is similar and necklace identical to those in her
depiction in Hugo van der Goes's later Portinari Altarpiece (c.
1475), a painting that may have been partly based on Memling's
portrait.

The panel is the right wing of a devotional and hinged triptych;

the lost center panel is recorded in sixteenth-century inventories
as a Virgin and Child. The panels were commissioned by
Tommaso, a member of a prominent Florentine family. Tommaso
was an intimate of Charles the Bold and an ambitious manager of
the Bruges branch of a bank controlled by Lorenzo de' Medici,[1]
and a well known and active patron of Flemish art.[2] Tommaso
eventually lost his position due to a series of large and risky
unsecured loans given to Charles.[3]

Maria and Tommaso's portraits are hung alongside each other at Portrait of Maria Portinari, c. 1470–72. Including frame:
the Metropolitan Museum of Artin New York. 44.1 cm × 34 cm (17.4 in × 13.4 in).Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York

Contents
Commission
Description
Provenance
Notes
Sources
External links

Commission
The portrait was commissioned by the art-loving Tommaso as the right-hand wing of a triptych.[4] She was placed opposite her
husband, with a now lost central Madonna and Child.[5][6] Their small size and intimacy suggests that the portraits were
commissioned for private prayer; some art historians believe, given that Tommaso's cultural acumen and preoccupation with his
social standing, they were partially accessible to the public. The triptych may have been intended for the Portinari Chapel, located
behind the apse of the Basilica of Sant'Eustorgio, Milan, and constructed between 1462 and 1468.[7]
 Maria would have been around 14 years old at the time the portrait was commissioned,
either the year of her marriage in 1470 or shortly after.[8] Tommaso represented the
Medici bank in Bruges, but after a promising early career he gave a number of risky and
unsecured loans to Charles the Bold which were left unpaid and eventually led to the
branch's insolvency.[9] He died young, and when the portrait was first mentioned as part
of his collection in 1501, he was no longer alive. Maria is recorded as being alive at the
time; she was executor to her husband's will but her fate thereafter is uncertain. The
1501 inventory places both portraits as wings, with a central Virgin and Child panel; "a
small, valuable panel painting, with an image of Our Lady in the middle and on the sides
painted Tommaso and mona Maria his wife" (una tavoletta dipinta preg[i]ata cum nel
mezo una immagine di Nostra Donna e delle bande si è Tommaso e mona Maria sua
donna dipinti in deta tavoletta).[9]

Portrait of Tommaso Portinari, c. Description

1470. Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York The half-length portrait shows Maria Portinari (born Maria Maddalena Baroncelli in
1456)[10] in a three-quarter view turned to the left. She has somewhat Nordic features,
and is dressed in the high fashion then found at the apex of Flemish and Italian high
society. She is placed against a flat, opaque, dark background, with her hands clasped in prayer. In Memling's early portraits the
backgrounds tend to be plain, as was invariably the case in the work of Jan van Eyck and Roger van der Weyden, and favored within
Burgundian court circles. In contrast, Memling's later portraits are set within rich interiors or against landscapes framed by columns,
such as in his Portrait of Benedetto Portinari, a fact that has assisted in dating his work.[11]

Maria's face is idealised and conforms to contemporary ideals of beauty, especially in the raised eyebrows and elongated nose.[12]
The art historian Lorne Campbell has noted her facial similarity to the Virgin in Memling's panel at the National Museum of Ancient
Art, Lisbon.[12] In this work, Maria's frame is slightly undersized compared to her head, a common characteristic of contemporary
northern portraiture, also found in similar works by Rogier van der Weyden and Petrus Christus.[13] Her elbows rest on an unseen
parapet that coincides with the lower edge of the painted stone frame, acting as a trompe-l'œil which situates her both in the same
reality and in closer proximity to the viewer.[14] Maria wears a relatively modest wedding band lined with rubies and sapphire. Her
necklace is colored with mostly red and blue jewels, similar toHugo van der Goes's portrait of her in thePortinari Altarpiece.[15]

The black hennin is long, truncated and relatively plain[16] with a

transparent veil which falls around the back of her neck, resting
briefly on her shoulder. Probably it was kept relatively unadorned so
as not to distract from the necklace. Her costume is mostly black or
brown, with a wide but high neckline and white fur lined hems on the
sleeves. Portinari has dark eyes, a strong nose, full lips and a pointed
chin.[17] Her visible hand, folded in prayer but unrealistically off
center, wears what looks like a jeweled ring. The dark sleeves of her
dress contain red or rouge velvet-like cloth tightened by a white belt.
Her hair is shaved back to achieve the high forehead and sculptural
look fashionable at the time.[16][18]

Double Portrait of Charles the Bold and Isabella of Maria's necklace is gilded and studded with pearls, rubies and
Bourbon. Unknown artist, 16th c. Ghent. Museum
sapphires. It contains three open flowers; one white with a ruby
voor Schone Kunsten
jewel, another red with a sapphire, and one gray-blue with a pearl.
The upper line contains a row of onyx beads, from which hang,
according to the art historian Sophie McConnell "small teardrops" gold and bluish-grey enameled wire.[16] The necklace is very
similar to that worn by Margaret of York at her wedding to Charles the Bold in 1468, an occasion the Portinaris attended.[19][20] A
depiction of Charles in a double Portrait with Isabella of Bourbon, now in Ghent, closely resembles that of Thomas in facial features,
while Isabella and Maria look very similar.[21] Dirk De Vos believes van der Goes may have seen Memling's panel when he stayed
 Detail from Hugo van der Goes's c. 1475 Portinari Altarpiece, Uffizi, Florence

Detail from the Portinari Altarpiece showing the couple's daughter Margarita. Note the similar stare, demeanor and
hennin

[14]
with Tommaso in Bruges c. 1497, and incorporated elements for his own depiction.

[20] Technical examination using x-radiography

The panel is in very good condition and among the best preserved of Memling's work.
shows that the hennin originally contained pearls which formed the letters "T" and "M", standing for Tommaso and Maria. Similar
pearl monograms, which would have been intended as a sign of marital connection, can be found in van der Goes's portraits of the
couple.[22] Maryan Ainsworth concludes that they were removed from the final composition as they may have been "deemed too
conspicuous a show of opulence in the presence of the Virgin and Child, most likely the now lost object of Maria's veneration."[23]
Maria's ear was at one stage exposed, but was later covered by the wide frontlet of the hennin, a change of mind also found in the
Donne Triptych.[24]
very similar portrait of the female donor in Memling's c. 1470s to early 1480

Provenance
The panel has at various times been attributed to van der Goes and van Eyck, but was recognized as by Memling as early as the time
of the seminal 1902 exhibition Exposition des primitifs flamands à Bruges in Bruges, when it was lent by Léopold Goldschmidt of
Paris. In 1916 Max J. Friedländer described it as "without doubt" by Memling, and c. 1475.[25] The art historian Catheline Périer-
d'Ieteren, while noting that Memling's portrait faces were rarely underdrawn, wrote that this panel contains "thin yet confident incised
[26]
lines" which may be preliminary drawings for Maria's face, perhaps made from life.

The triptych was recorded in an inventory of Tommaso's holdings upon his death. The New York panels passed through Tommaso's
son Francesco. The central panel was described in his 1544 will as "a small tabernacle with three movable wings, in which is depicted
the glorious Virgin Mary and the father and mother of the donor" (unum tabernaculettum que clauditur con tribus sportellis, in qua
est depicta imago Gloriossime virginis Marie et patris et matris dicti testatoris).[9] Francesco bequeathed the triptych to the convent
of the hospital of Saint Maria Nuova in Florence. Records indicate a small intact winged altarpiece which stayed in the hospital's
possession until around the time of the Napoleonic occupation,when it was probably broken up.[4]

Detail of Hugo's portrait of
Tommaso, c. 1470
Maria's panel was sold as a Dieric Bouts for Fr6,000 in
1870. It later passed through several private collections
before arriving in the possession of Elia Volpi of Rome,
who briefly returned it to Florence. Thereafter the panels
were in London from 1901, from where they were sold to
Villeroy Goldschmidt of Paris by for $426,500 in 1910.[9]
They were purchased, also in 1910, by the collector
Benjamin Altman of New York on the advice of
Friedländer, along with works by Albrecht Dürer, Gerard
David and Hans Holbein the Younger – paintings whose
"grave austerity seems to have been most in tune with his
own taste".[27] Altman bequeathed his holdings to the
Metropolitan on his death in 1913.[28][29]
Exposition des primitifs
flamands à Bruges

Notes
1. "Tommaso di Folco Portinari(http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/14.40.626-27/)". Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York. Retrieved 31 January 2016
2. Wehle (1953), 131
3. Nash (2008), 125
4. Waldman (2001), 28–33
5. Panofsky (1953), 294
6. Nash (2008), 127
7. "Sant'Eustorgio's basilica, Milan(http://www.gettyimages.de/detail/nachrichtenfoto/santeustorgios-basilica-milan-porti
nari-chapel-tomb-of-nachrichtenfoto/629547251#) ". J. Paul Getty Museum. Retrieved 13 May 2016
8. Wehle (1953), 129
9. "Tommaso di Folco Portinari (1428–1501); Maria Portinari (Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, born 1456)(http://www.met
museum.org/art/collection/search/437056?=&imgno=1&tabname=object-information) ". Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York. Retrieved 17 March 2016
10. Burn (1997), 36
11. Panofsky (1953), 348–49
12. Campbell (1990), 18
13. See van der Weyden's c. 1460 Portrait of a Lady and Christus' c. 1465–70Portrait of a Young Girl
14. De Vos (1994), 30–32
15. Franke (2007), 135–36
16. McConnell (1991), 19
17. Nash (2008), 126
18. Grössinger (1997), 60
19. Ainsworth (2009), 141
20. Ainsworth, Maryan. "Tommaso di Folco Portinari (1428–1501); Maria Portinari (Maria Maddalena Baroncelli, born
1456) (http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/437056?=&imgno=1&tabname=object-infor
mation)". Metropolitan Museum of Art, New Y
ork, 2011. Retrieved 7 February 2016
21. Franke (2007), 136
22. Franke (2007), 135
23. Ainsworth (1994), 85–86
24. Campbell (1998), 286
25. Friedländer (1916), 194–95
26. Périer-d'Ieteren (2006), 210
27. Haskell (1970), 275
28. Burn (1997), 37
29. Haskell (1970), 260

Sources
Ainsworth, Maryan. Hans Memling as a Draughtsman, in Hans Memling: Essays(ed. Dirk De Vos). Ghent, 1994.
ISBN 978-90-5544-030-6
Ainsworth, Maryan. From Van Eyck to Bruegel: Early Netherlandish Paintings in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
.
New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2009. ISBN 978-0-87099-870-6
Burn, Barbara. Masterpieces of the Metropolitan Museum of Art
. New York: Bulfinch Press: Bulfinch Press, 1997.
ISBN 978-0-87099-849-2
Campbell, Lorne. Renaissance Portraits. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990.ISBN 978-0-300-04675-5
Campbell, Lorne. The Fifteenth Century Netherlandish Schools. London: National Gallery Publications, 1998.
ISBN 978-1-85709-171-7
De Vos, Dirk. Hans Memling: The Complete Works. Ghent: Harry N Abrams, 1994.ISBN 978-0-8109-3649-2
Franke, Susanne. "Between Status and Spiritual Salvation: The Portinari riptych
T and Tommaso Portinari's Concern
for His Memoria". Simiolus: Netherlands Quarterly for the History of Art
, 33.3, 2007
Friedländer, Max J. "The Altman Memlings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art".Art in America 4, no. 4, 1916
Grössinger, Christa. Picturing women in late Medieval and Renaissance art
. Manchester: Manchester University
Press, 1997. ISBN 978-0-7190-4109-9
Haskell, Francis. "The Benjamin Altman Bequest". New o
Yrk: Metropolitan Museum Journal, volume 3, 1970
McConnell, Sophie. Metropolitan Jewelry. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991. ISBN 978-0-300-04675-5
Nash, Susie. Northern Renaissance art. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008.ISBN 978-0-19-284269-5
Panofsky, Erwin. Early Netherlandish Painting. London: Harper Collins, 1953.ISBN 978-0-06-430002-5
Périer-d'Ieteren, Catheline.Dieric Bouts: The Complete Works. Brussels: Thames & Hudson 2006.ISBN 978-90-
6153-638-3
Waldman, Louis Alexander. "New Documents for Memling's Portinari Portraits in the Metropolitan Museum of Art."
Apollo, Number 153, February 2001
Wehle, Harry. "Maria Portinari". The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, January 1953

External links
At the Metropolitan Museum of Art

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