''La donna gravida'' (or simply ''La gravida''; Italian for "The Pregnant Woman") is an

oil on wood A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not pain ...

portrait A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this r ...

by the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...

High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...

artist

Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual a ...

. It was painted between 1505 and 1506, during Raphael's stay in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. It is now in the

Palazzo Pitti The Palazzo Pitti (), in English sometimes called the Pitti Palace, is a vast, mainly Renaissance, palace in Florence, Italy. It is situated on the south side of the River Arno, a short distance from the Ponte Vecchio. The core of the present ...

in Florence. The portrait depicts a woman who is pregnant sitting with her left hand resting on her stomach. Paintings of pregnant women were unusual in the Renaissance period.

History

The work is mentioned for the first time in an early 18th-century inventory of Palazzo Pitti, as from an unknown artist. In 1813 it was transferred to the Grand Ducal wardrobe of the

Uffizi The Uffizi Gallery (; it, Galleria degli Uffizi, italic=no, ) is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums ...

, before returning again to Palazzo Pitti where it should replace several works robbed by the French. In the 1815 inventory it is attributed to Innocenzo da Imola, while in that of 1829 it is again listed as by an unknown painter. It was first ascribed to Raphael in 1839: it is now nearly unanimously considered by the Umbrian painter, with the exception of Italian 19th century art historian

Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle Giovanni Battista Cavalcaselle (22 January 1819 – 31 October 1897) was an Italian writer and art critic, best known as part of "Crowe and Cavalcaselle", for the many works in English on art history he co-authored with Joseph Archer Crowe. ...

, who assigned it to Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio. The identification of the portrayed woman is disputed. She could be a member of the Bufalini family of

Città di Castello Città di Castello (); "Castle Town") is a city and ''comune'' in the province of Perugia, in the northern part of Umbria. It is situated on a slope of the Apennines, on the flood plain along the upper part of the river Tiber. The city is north of ...

, or Emilia Pia da Montefeltro, due to similarities with the '' Portrait of Emilia Pia da Montefeltro'', now at

Baltimore Museum of Art The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, is an art museum that was founded in 1914. The BMA's collection of 95,000 objects encompasses more than 1,000 works by Henri Matisse anchored by the Cone Collection of ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

References

Page at the Web Gallery of Art. Retrieved April 16, 2007.

External links

* 16th-century portraits Portraits by Raphael Paintings in the collection of the Galleria Palatina 1506 paintings {{16C-painting-stub

History

See also

References

External links