2-738-306 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Portrait of a Woman, Possibly a Novice of San Secondo, c. 1490. Despite the distinctive costume, the young woman’s identity remains in doubt. Her headgear may be secular, while others connect it to a Benedictine or Franciscan order of nuns. Venetian portraits of the late 1400s often presented young woman in saintly guises, underscoring the Renaissance idea that portraits should display virtues more than the sitter’s actual character.