Art Review for a Painting by M.Petric

Portrait of a Lady by an unknown artist

Art Review for a Painting
by Marija Petric

This painting is a portrait of a beautiful lady from the 18th century which was commissioned by the royal family to be passed down as a family heirloom.The author of this work remains unknown although some believe it is the work of Miguel Cabrera.

In this picture the lines are mainly curved and the organic shapes dominate. The major colours are red and black, and light blue. The colours look naturally harmonius even though there is a strong and intriguing contrast between the red drapery and the black in the background. Also, the lady in the central part looks a lot more dazzling because she is wearing a light blue dress which is totally opposite to the background. The only thing that seems to fit are red flowers on it and a big one in her left hand. The shades are warm. The art work make us aware of a spherical pattern. The texture which the painting shows is velvety and very soft.

The main subject of this painting is a lady who is located in the central part. The technique is asymmetrical. Shading is used mainly in the parts of her body and her face, not on the dress. In the background there is shading on the drapery because it is curved. The space is rather flat with a slight sense of depth provided with the drapery in the background. A discrete sense of aerial perspective is achieved through the woman’s left arm, which is shaded to project an illusion of the three-dimensional world onto a one-dimensional surface. It also forms a sense of depth – of receding space. The only material the artist used in this piece of art is paint and the brush strokes are linear.

The new title of this peace could possibly be Beautiful as a Rose because there is a red rose in woman’s left hand which can be a symbol of the woman’s character. Perhaps she is a kind of person who can easily fall in love or it represents the passion this lady posseses. Also, there is a clear symbol of her royal origin represented in the amblem and red colour of the drapery. The lady looks very poised, which is emphasised by the dominating blue colour of her dress, and there is a general sense of harmony, so this wonderful portrait makes you feel calm, and it makes me a bit nostalgic about the old, 18th century times.

I think that this artwork is imitative because the artist accurately represented the appearance of the woman which was its general purpose, and at the same time it is functional because the artist wanted this artwork to be useful or it was maybe made for propaganda purposes for the royal family.There were slight differences in other people’s opinions about this work of art, but generally they all agree that the woman presented comes from a royal family because of the amblem in the up left corner. One person’s opinion was that the moment when this was painted was a period before her wedding, or maybe her coronation if she was to become a queen because the red colour in the background usually stands for something royal. But the other person, who is not interested in paintings at all thought that she was some kind of a countess and that she was very shallow because of the look of her face. Finally the third person’s opinion was that there was a wonderful contrast between her and the black background which represents other people. This contrast makes her illuminating and unique among the others.

I think that this painting could be interesting for some rich people who are connected to this way of living. People interested in it could also be some art historians, however, these two groups would not seem to include a lot of people.