Giulio Pippi, called Giulio Romano, Woman with a Mirror, oil on canvas, transferred from wood, 43 3/4 x 36 1/4 in. Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow
Selected Works
Profane Love
Woman with a Mirror
Although her identity is unknown, the woman in this portrait by Raphael's preeminent pupil is almost certainly a courtesan or high-class prostitute, as her state of undress and seductive body language indicate. Expensive jewels of the type she wears, particularly pearls, were frequently given to such women as payment for "carnal commerce," and the elegant trinkets on the table beside her, which include a mirror and a perfume holder, were tools of a courtesan's trade. A sculpture of Venus, goddess of love, in a niche in the courtyard also reflects the sitter's profession. Widely tolerated, if periodically condemned, courtesans and prostitutes were fixtures in sixteenth-century Italy. In Rome, courtesans were the cultivated companions of a large population of high-ranking, nominally celibate clerics. Despite its derivation from Raphael's Fornarina, Giulio's less idealizing portrait is unambiguously erotic. Images of forbidden love such as this portrait were often concealed by curtains or shutters and were accessible only to a private audience.
