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Description: | The string of pearls held by the unknown sitter in her open palm may characterise her as a virtuous wife. Pearls were often associated with virtue in seventeenth-century emblems. Their positive connotations were retained in the eighteenth century, although by then the original sources had been forgotten. The meaning of pearls in female portraiture was ambiguous, since they also appeared as a luxurious accessory in images of courtesans. In this case, they may simply be an adornment suggesting the sitter's wealth and her appreciation of precious objects. She wears a grey dress decorated with white lace and a white lace cap. | Subjects: | portrait | Source: | Vads | Creator: | Artist: German School Æ Attributed to | Identifier: | http://www.vads.ac.uk/large.php?uid=8959... | Go to resource |
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