A New Portrait by Raphael and Its Historical Context

Abstract

A hitherto unknown picture on panel is presented here, and its attribution to the young Raphael, about 1507, is put for­ward, on the basis of two ancient copies of the picture and of an ancient inscription. The inscription at the back reveals the identity of the sitter, Costanza Fregoso. She is mentioned in Baldassarre Castiglione's Book of the Courtier, and was one of the leading dames at the Urbino Court at the end of the year 1506. Newly produced archival research gives some more information about her life and about the story of the picture. Costanza Fregoso had been for a while the lover of Pietro Bembo, who was at Urbino Court between the last months of 1506 and the last months of 1507. As it is well known, Bembo was a personal friend to Raphael. The portrait is identified here as a picture given to Bembo by Costanza as a token of love, in exchange for a small portrait of Bembo himself, recorded by Michiel to have been done in 1507, and now lost. When their love affair came to an end and the portraits were sent back to the respective sitters, after Costanza Fregoso's marriage in 1509, she had the background of her portrait radically changed by a North Italian painter, about 1515—1520. The original background can be clearly seen in infra-red reflectography. It is perfectly consistent with Raphael's style of about 1507, with the style of the portrait itself, as well as with the background visible on the oldest copy, datable about 1510—1515. A campaign of X-rays and infra-red reflectography has been carried out on the picture. It revealed existence of a now lost cartoon, transferred by spolvero, and of many pentimenti - which makes it clear that we are looking at an original by Raphael, from about 1507, and not at a copy. The last proposal is that a well known pen sketch by Raphael in the Louvre is rather related to this picture than to the Dame with the Unicorn in the Borghese Gallery, as it is usually stated.