Simone Pignoni (Florence 1611-1698) --------
Oil on canvas ----------
Period: Second half of the 17th century -------------
Measurements: canvas cm. 65 x 54 frame 80 x 70 ----------------
Intense portrait executed in profile depicting a young and beautiful crowned Queen. --------
The attractive young woman, very sensual and voluptuous, displays her bare breasts in a provocative pose. ----------
The particularly intense gaze directed upwards and the open book in her hands transmit an unusual emotion to the viewer, a confusion between sacred and profane. ----------
In fact, the comparison to Saint Catherine of Alexandria is evident (the book is one of her attributes in addition to the wheel and the sword), but the erotic charge of the protagonist is decidedly unusual and emotionally disorients the viewer. --------
The painting is a 17th-century work by the famous Florentine painter Simone Pignoni, as confirmed by an expertise report drawn up by Prof. Ferdinando Arisi. --------------
Pignoni specialized in the production of fervent religious portraits, particularly of women, depicting diaphanous figures predominantly against a dark background, and the canvas in question, albeit with an unusually more earthly and less ecstatic subject, reflects these characteristics. -----------
The painting is in excellent condition with old 19th-century relining.
