Chat between…Lotto and Morelli

From the Intesa Sanpaolo collection of the Gallerie d’Italia in Naples comes to the Pinacoteca di Brera the artwork by Domenico Morelli, Dama con il ventaglio (1873) displayed alongside Lorenzo Lotto’s Portrait of Laura da Pola (1543 – 1544).

In the Portrait of Laura da Pola commissioned to Lorenzo Lotto in 1543, paired with that of his husband Febo da Brescia, the new bride exhibits the elements of her status. In her right hand she holds a fan made of white feathers, chiseled gold handle and secured to her belt by a chain.

Morelli’s Lady with a Fan was made in 1873 for the private salon of Duke d’Eboli Doria and depicts a provocative young woman with bare breasts in the intimacy of a domestic setting. Light plays a predominant role, transcending from the back of the sofa to the coppery red locks of hair to the Japanese rice paper fan, a tribute to the Orientalist fashion popular in Naples in those years. The girl portrayed is Anna Cutolo, Morelli’s favorite model and future wife of sculptor Vincenzo Gemito.