Title

Portrait of a Sainted Nun

Generic classification

Object

Date

Century

Cultural context / style

Dimensions

Material

Technique

Iconography / Theme

Provenance

Current location

Inventory Number in Current Collection

Object history

It is unknown how this painting came to Spain or when it became part of the royal collections. Housed at La Granja de San Ildefonso, on August 15, 1812, the Intendant of Segovia, Ramón Luis de Escobedo, presented it to the 1st Duke of Wellington along with eleven other paintings, of which only two have been located: this one, cataloged as “Head of a Nun,” and a Head of Saint Joseph, which is also housed at the same museum (see entry no. 529). In the documentation preserved in the General Palace Archive (Historical, box 129), it is described as “Head of a Nun: by Andrea del Sarto.” Wellington took the painting along with the other works of art he was given and it has never left his collection at Apsley House.

Description

Apsley House, home to the Wellington Collection, houses a panel painting depicting a nun dressed in her habit. Juan Antonio Gaya Nuño cataloged it as *A Nun*, which was formerly housed at the Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso (Segovia), and attributed it to the Florentine painter Andrea del Sarto. However, as noted in the Wellington Collection catalog, this attribution is now rejected, the painting’s date of execution is pushed back to the mid-16th century (Andrea del Sarto died in 1531), and Bronzino’s circle is cited as the likely source.

The female figure, originally with a halo that is now largely lost, holds in her right hand a Maltese cross with a medallion at the intersection, depicting a Crucifix. This cross, which may have been painted at a later date, as it displays a different technique from the figure, does not indicate that the woman depicted was necessarily a member of the Commanderesses of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem—which would suggest one of the Order’s saints—since the cross was also used by other religious orders.

There is significant paint loss, particularly on the right side, and the halo is practically gone.

Locations

• Unknown date

  palace

  Royal Palace of La Granja de San Ildefonso, Real Sitio de San Ildefonso (Spain)

• present

  museum

  Apsley House, London (United Kingdom)