Two portraits of Rosalba Carriera enter the Frick Collection, and one hides a holy card

The Frick Collection recently acquired through a donation two works by Rosalba Carriera, among the most important female artists of the eighteenth century: two pastel portraits depicting a woman and a man, the latter in pilgrim’s clothing, respectively.

The two paintings were donated by Alexis Gregory, founder of Vendome Press who passed away for Covid last year, and are on display for the first time on the third floor of Frick Madison.

Xavier Solomon, the museum’s deputy director and chief curator, said the provenance and subjects are still unknown, but behind the portrait of the man in pilgrim’s robes, inserted into the frame, a holy card with a prayer and image dedicated to the Three Wise Men was discovered, which overlay a view of Cologne. The prayer invites them to protect wayfarers from “mal’ore de’ cammini, mal di Testa, mal caduco, Febre, da Stregarie e da ogni fonte di Malefici, Morte subitanea.”

It is likely that the artist used to include holy cards in the works she sent abroad to those who had had their portraits taken in her workshop, “as a sort of talisman to protect her creations while traveling,” Solomon commented.

Rosalba Carriera’s two pastels, however, constitute the only works in the Frick’s museum collections by women artists, with the exception of a pair of saltcellars by Suzanne de Court, an enamel painter active in Limoges in the late 16th century.

Ph.Credit Frick Collection

Two portraits of Rosalba Carriera enter the Frick Collection, and one hides a holy card

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