Portrait of a Lady with an Elaborate Cartouche (1785): Art, History and Details

Portrait of a Lady with an Elaborate Cartouche (1785) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Giuseppe Cades (Italian, 1750–1799).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The woman portrayed in the oval has not yet been identified, but she is made to look highly important by her rendition in profile, like an ancient Renaissance coin, and by the elaborate decoration surrounding the cartouche (the central area containing the portrait). Increasing her distinction, the flying male nudes personify Victory and Fame, while the crown, that of an English viscountess, indicates her nobility. The contrast in technique between the cartouche—composed of pen, ink, and watercolor—and the red-chalk portrait was purposefully emphasized to suggest that the portrait is an older "icon" of reverence. Giuseppe Cades was an important history painter and frescoist, known also for his decorative ensembles, whose influence can be detected in the decorative quality of this composition. This drawing combines the contemporary French Rococo style of the red chalk portrait with the antique-based, Italian style of the surrounding decorative figures and forms. A finished work rather than a preparatory study, it would have been made as a souvenir for the English tourist during her stay in Rome on the Grand Tour.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of a Lady with an Elaborate Cartouche
• Date: 1785
• Creator attribution: Giuseppe Cades (Italian, 1750–1799)
• Culture: Italy, Rome
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Red chalk over graphite (portrait), pen and black ink and watercolor over graphite (surround), circular framing line in graphite
• Dimensions: Image: 36 x 35.9 cm (14 3/16 x 14 1/8 in.); Secondary Support: 39.1 x 38.7 cm (15 3/8 x 15 1/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - Italian
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 1999.172

A detail from the museum

The woman’s hairstyle in this drawing—cut short and frizzed at the front and sides, with loose curls in the back—was called à la hérisson, or "hedgehog style," and was fashionable during the 1780s.

Collection credit

John L. Severance Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• P. & D. Colnaghi & Co. Exhibition of Old Master Drawings. London: P. & D. Colnaghi & Co, 1952.
• Christie’s. Important Old Master Drawings: Architectural and Decorative Drawings. London: Christie’s, 1985.
• Caracciolo, Maria Teresa. Giuseppe Cades 1750-1799 et la Rome de son temps. Paris: Arthena, 1990.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.