Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

“Barbara di Santa Sofia” and “Il Prete Genovese”: On the Identity of a Portrait by Bernardo Strozzi

1981; College Art Association; Volume: 63; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00043079.1981.10787875

1559-6478

David Rosand, Ellen Rosand,

Historical Influence and Diplomacy

This study identifies a painting by Strozzi as the portrait of Barbara Strozzi (no relation), a celebrated singer and composer in Venice. Although cast in the typological mold of Saint Cecilia, the picture, in its tone and its sitter's pose and dress, suggests a different morality, interpretable through Barbara's involvement in the Accademia degli Unisoni and relation to members of the Accademia degli Incogniti. The picture can be traced to that same circle of libertine intellectuals whose members provided the “powerful protectors” of Bernardo Strozzi when the renegade Capuchin fled Genoa. This clarification of his Venetian patronage would seem to lend credence to Soprani's romantic account of Strozzi's escape from monastic captivity, often dismissed as theatrical.