Portrait of a noblewoman (Marfisa d’Este), 1938

Oil on plywood,

Marfisa Building, inv. PME14

The painting is a copy of a late 16th-century female portrait, preserved at the Ducal Palace in Mantua. In the late 1930s, people wanted to recognize the image of Marfisa d’Este in the Mantuan original (attributed to Anthonis Mor). The gentlewoman had been identified by Ferrara scholar Antonio Lazzari, who had supported this hypothesis on the basis of a comparison with the fresco depicting Marfisa as a child, located on the wall of the Loggetta dei Ritratti. In 1938, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Palazzina Marfisa, the original painting was loaned to Ferrara. After four months, the Superintendency of Mantua requested its return to the Ducal Palace, and so it became necessary to make a copy, which was commissioned from Mario Capuzzo.

The lady with the regal attitude is wrapped in a precious black velvet gown embellished with long sleeves of white silk worked in relief with gold and silver threads; the white collar, pleated in the Spanish style, enhances the complexion of the face and the brilliant colors of the necklace.