Portrait of Contessa Rosa Arconati, later Sister Gioseffa Marianna (daughter of Conte Giuseppe Maria Arconati), in the Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena in Porta Lodovico, Milan,
oil on canvas, 207 x 119 cm, framed

Provenance:
Almost certainly commissioned by Count Giuseppe Maria Arconati together with portraits by his other three daughters as part of a series for the Villa Arconati, Lombardy;
Art market, London

Literature:
G. Treccani degli Alfieri, Fondazione Treccani degli Alfieri per la storia di Milano: in: Storia di Milano (Milan, 1958), XI, p. 555-558, (illustrated);
D. Owen, Representing the Family: Portraits and Purposes in Early Modern Italy, in The Journal of Interdisciplinary History, Vol. 17, No. 1, The Evidence of Art: Images and Meaning in History (Summer, 1986), p. 28–29;
R. L. Kendrick, Celestial Sirens: Nuns and Their Music in Early Modern Milan, Oxford University Press, 1996, p. 121, Note 106, 107

The present painting is one of four portraits of the daughters of the art collector Count Giuseppe Maria Arconati of Milan and were most probably intended for the Villa Arconati in Castellazzo di Bollate (see ill.). All four daughters became nuns in around 1700 in different convents in Lombardy. The series was last seen united in 1958 when it was published (see literature), and this is the second portrait of the series to reappear. The first which recently reappeared was the portrait of Rosa’s sister Livia. It carried an attribution to Pier Francesco Cittadini given by Daniele Benati (see Dorotheum, Vienna, October 13, 2010, Lot 331). However Daniele Benati no longer supports this attribution. There exists another portrait of Livia Arconati dated 1677, showing her of under ten years of age In Livia’s Portrait previously offered at Dorotheum she is at least twenty years old and could therefore not have been executed by Cittadini who died in 1681. Although stylistically similar to late works of Cittadini the series must it appears to by another hand.

In the series of portraits the Arconati sisters are all dressed in sumptuously embroidered “habits a la française”, suggesting a date of execution between 1695-1700. This would be in accordance to the time of their entry into convents. In all the portraits, including the present painting they are dressed at the very height of fashion, displaying not only a rich, but a modish costume (complete with muffs, jewels, and elaborate headwear), that declared the family’s wealth. Their social accomplishments and domestic graces are suggested by the musical instruments depicted, such as in the present painting. The message conveyed seems clear: here are daughters dressed for society and trained in the arts of the drawing room. Information added subsequently to the portraits tells us that all four sisters became nuns, although their father may have chosen to remember them differently.

Conceivably, a collector and patron of the arts of Arconati’s status would have commissioned the best available artist in Milan, but as yet the artist is unidentified. The leading portraitist in Milan at the time would have been Fra Galgario. Interestingly, Galgario did paint two very similar large scale portraits of the Milanese aristocracy, one of which features a comparable compositional scheme (Portrait of Annibale Visconti, Vatalaro Collection, Milan.) An alternative attribution to Andrea Porta (Milan 1656–1723) has also been suggested, based on a series he executed for the Ca’ Grande in Milan. (see S. A. Colombo, La Ca’ Granda, fucina dei ritrattisti milanesi, in Il ritratto in Lombardia: da Moroni a Ceruti, ed. by F. Frangi/A. Morandotti, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2002, S. 269, 278-281) and also to Salomon Adler (Danzig 1630–1709 Milan).

additional picture:
Engraving of the Villa Arconati by Marc’Antonio Dal Re from 1743