Focus on The Princesse de Broglie and discuss the Description.
The Princesse de Broglie is shown in three-quarters view, her arms resting on a lavishly upholstered, pale gold damask easy chair. Her head is tilted to the viewer's left, and her black hair tightly pulled back and bound by blue satin ribbons. She is pictured in the family home at 90 rue de l'Université in Paris, in an evening dress that implies she is about to go out for the evening. She is dressed in the height of contemporary Parisian fashion, in particular the opulent Second Empire fashions then current in clothing, jewelry and furniture. She wears a gold embroidered evening shawl, and an off-the-shoulder, pale blue satin hoop skirt gown, with short sleeves and a lace and ribbon trim, highly emblematic of 1850s evening dress. Her hair is covered with a sheer frill trimmed with matching blue ribbon knots, and is swept back with a centre parting.
Her adornments include a necklace, tasseled earrings and bracelets on each wrist. Her pendant with cross pattée signifies her piety, and was perhaps designed by Fortunato Pio Castellani or Mellerio dits Meller. Her earrings are made from cascades of small natural pearls. Her left wrist has a bracelet of roped pearls; the one on her right is made of enameled red and diamond set gold links. The necklace is held by a double looped chain holding a gold pendant, which appears to be an original Roman bulla.
As with all of Ingres's portraits of women, her body seems to lack a solid bone structure. Her neck is unusually elongated, and her arms seem boneless or dislocated, while her left forearm appears to be under modeled and lacking in musculature. Her oval face and her expression are idealised, lacking the level of detail given to other foreground elements, although she was widely known as a great beauty.The painting is composed of gray, white, blue, yellow and gold hues. The costume and decor are painted with a supreme precision, crispness and realism that art historians have compared to the work of Jan van Eyck. In many ways the painting is austere; art historian Robert Rosenblum describes a "glassy chill", and "astonishing chromatic harmonies that, for exquisite, silvery coolness, are perhaps only rivaled by Vermeer". Her facial features are statuesque and in places display the quality of porcelain. The painting contains a number of pentimenti, including around the contours of her hair, and the yellow chair. There are horizontal bands about 2.5 cm wide in yellow paint on either side of her head near the earrings. They seem to have been used to plot the positioning of the moldings. The black hat on the chair seems to have been a late addition. There are visible passages of underdrawing where the artist seems to trace out shapes and positions, established in the preparatory sketches, onto the grounded canvas. These include squared lines around the left shoulder and chest areas. There are lines mapping out the throat and top edge of the bodice.
Compared to the Portrait of Comtesse d'Haussonville, or most of Ingres's later portraits, the background is flat and featureless, probably to place emphasis on the coat of arms. It comprises a neutral soft pale gray and evenly textured wall, with a linear structured gilded wood mouldings, and a fictitious coat of arms combining the heraldics of the de Broglie and de Bearn families. The grey wall is underlined with a barely discernible deep blue pigment. This minimalist approach reflects the "ascetic elegance" of his early female portraits, where the sitter was often set against featureless backdrops. The precisely rendered details and geometric background create an impression of immobility, though subtle movement is implied by the tilt of her head and the shimmering folds of her dress.The current frame measures 157 × 125.6 cm at the exterior and is made of pink-orange pine, lined with a garland of gilt-plastered ornament flowers. Its ornaments lie on ovolo molding. It was produced in the United States between 1950 and 1960 (around the time the Metropolitan acquired the work) in the French Louis XIII style fashionable in Ingres's period. It is similar to, and probably modeled on, the frame used for Madame Moitessier, which is most likely an original and is dated 1856. The original de Broglie plaster frame was made in 1860 at the latest, and is thought to have been similar to the current one.
pentimenti hoop skirt de Bearn molding rue de l'Université gown coat of arms de Broglie hoop Portrait of Comtesse d'Haussonville mouldings Mellerio dits Meller Jan van Eyck Roman Fortunato Pio Castellani porcelain Vermeer bodice pendant Second Empire fashions bulla Louis XIII style Madame Moitessier Robert Rosenblum fr Comtesse d'Haussonville pine left cross pattée underdrawing damask