Portrait of a Lady

Lotto painted relatively few female portraits of which the Portrait of a Lady is the earliest to survive. It shows a strong stylistic resemblance to the portrait of Bishop Bernardo de’ Rossi. Like that portrait, this one may once have had a cover, the so-called Maiden’s Dream in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.

Until the late 19th century this portrait of an unidentified woman, who wears no jewelry and whose light brown hair is pulled back in a net cap, was attributed to Hans Holbein the Younger.