Focus on Portrait of Doña Isabel de Requesens y Enríquez de Cardona-Anglesola and analyze the Description.
The subject is portrayed seated, turned to the viewer's left, wearing a deep red velvet dress trimmed with gold whose sleeves are slashed to reveal the cream fabric of her chemise, and a hat with jewels on the brim, whose shape suggests a halo. She is portrayed in three-quarters length, one hand fingering the fur around her shoulders, the other resting on one knee. In the background a woman leans against the railing of a loggia overlooking a garden; the vault is a visual quotation from the story of Cupid and Psyche as painted by Raphael on the ceiling of the Loggia di Psiche at the Villa Farnesina in Rome. Her loose hair, the red garments (the colour of love for Petrarch), and her meeting the viewer's gaze are all sensuous details; further, the portrait is innovative in including her knees, which in addition are visibly parted, and in not having her hands chastely together as a barrier. The composition corresponds to that of other Raphael portraits in being based on the musical ratio 9/12/16.Both Isabel de Requesens and Giovanna d'Aragona were famous beauties; Giovanna was the subject of a poem by Agostino Nifo, "De pulchro et amore", and it has been suggested that the beauty in the painting was as much formulaic as true to life.Both Giocondae portraits feature carved cats on the right which resemble lions, a punning allusion to Leonardo. The woman in the background is replaced by a man in the portrait of Isabella of Naples; they may allude respectively to the sitter and the artist in the Mona Lisa.Manet likely had this painting in mind when he painted his regal picture of his wife Suzanne, The Reading.
Villa Farnesina The Reading Cupid and Psyche Raphael Suzanne Agostino Nifo left Mona Lisa Isabel de Requesens Petrarch Giovanna d'Aragona Manet Leonardo