Portrait of Cecilia Gozzadini

Portrait of Cecilia Gozzadini is an oil painting attributed to Parmigianino, dated to around 1530 and now held at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

Portrait of a Young Woman
Year	c. 1530
Dimensions	50 cm (20 in) × 46.5 cm (18.3 in)
Accession No.	GG_327

Description

Against a dark background a young woman gazes at the viewer, dressed in a pink dress with slashed sleeves, after the fashion of the time. It is open at the front to shows a modest white undershirt called a guimp, held together at the neck with a ribbon in the same color of the dress. On her head she is wearing a donut-shaped turban called a balzo with gold embroidery, after a fashion then popular in Italy of the 1530s that is similar to his Turkish Slave, or Titian's Portrait of Isabella d'Este created between 1534 and 1536.

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  Three examples of women wearing a balzo and guimp, though these women are wearing their guimps open
• 
  Turkish Slave

History

The work was part of the collection of Duke of Hamilton, who brought it to London. In 1659, it was acquired by Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria, whose collection later became part of the current museum. At some point after the 1660s it was severely cropped, but has been documented in its original state showing more of the green curtain at the left and hands holding a book.

The painting must have been a popular painting when it was in the Archduke's cabinet, as it was portrayed in his gallery paintings.

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  Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm (Brussels), (collection Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium)
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  Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Petworth) (collection Petworth House)
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  Gallery of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in Brussels (Vienna) (collection Kunsthistorisches Museum)

The woman has been identified as Cecilia Gozzadini by the museum.