Angelo Caroselli, 1585 Rom – 1652, Kreis des
PICTURE OF LAURA DIANTI WITH A MOHRENKNABEN
Oil on canvas.
70 x 55 cm.
The painting in elaborately carved gilded acanthus frame with crowned coat of arms and serrated crown.

Laura Dianti, of whom only the year of death 1573 is vouched for, was the mistress of Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara after the death of his wife Lucrezia Borgia. She became famous in the history of art through the famous painting by Tiziano Vecellio (1485/89-1576) from 1523 (private collection Switzerland), in which she was also portrayed with a Moor boy as a pageboy. The larger-format painting by Titian depicts her in a blue dress with a gold-coloured shaving cloth and similar headdress, as we see in the present painting. The Moor Boy in Titian's painting wears an elaborately designed striped costume, but the lady's posture in the present painting is identical to that of Titian's painting. However, unlike there, the painter has added a window view here, showing a mountainous landscape with buildings. Should the attribution to Caroselli be confirmed, the present painting would be a repetition of the motif, created posthumously, following Titian's example and probably in the sense of a Ferrarese ancestral gallery, as was customary for high-ranking members of the nobility.
Literature:
Alexander Rauch, painting of the High Renaissance and Mannerism in Rome and Central Italy, in: Art of the Italian Renaissance, Rolf Toman (ed.), Cologne 1994. (1221162) (3) (11)