Portrait of Felicita Sartori
| Support Type: | Canvas |
| Paint Type: | Oil Pastel |
| Current Location: | Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence |
| Location History: | The Portrait of Felicita Sartori was created in Venice around 1740–41 and is now housed in the Gallerie degli Uffizi, Florence. The work was already recorded in the Uffizi collection by 1890, although its earlier ownership history is not fully documented. Its present location reflects the museum’s significant holdings of European portraiture and eighteenth-century works on paper. |
The mask is the detail I keep returning to. She holds it loosely at her side, not raised to her face, so she seems to be choosing when to hide and when to be seen. Her gaze is direct but amused, with a slight smile, as if she knows she is being painted and is enjoying the game. Against the dark background, her pale face and the cool silver-lilac of her turban and bodice seem to glow from within, and the blue brocade with its scattered coral flowers draws the eye like a second spotlight. Behind that poise, there's a tension. The Turkish-style dress and the feather suggest an exotic masquerade, yet the portrait feels intimate rather than theatrical. A scholarly review by Melissa Percival notes that Carriera's relationship with Sartori was intense, and reads this portrait as unmistakably erotic. I see something more reserved in it, a sense of a young woman in control of how she is presented, playing with identity while keeping her own counsel.