Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family information
Painting by an unknown artist, c.1470
This article is an orphan, as no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; try the Find link tool for suggestions. (September 2023)
Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family
Artist
Unknown
Year
c. 1470
Medium
oil on silver fir
Dimensions
53.7 cm × 40.8 cm (21.1 in × 16.1 in)
Location
National Gallery, London, UK
Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family is a painting by an unknown artist, dating to c. 1470, in the collection of the National Gallery, London.[1]
The painting depicts an unknown woman of the Hofer family, holding forget-me-nots in one hand, wearing a black fabric item of clothing and with a “copious white veil”, upon which sits a black fly. The painting is a memento mori, and the addition of the fly “is a proof of the anonymous artist's gifts too: a guarantee of the realism and fidelity of the portrait.” [1] The presence of the forget-me-nots suggests the painting may have been used to commemorate an engagement, as the flowers typically symbolized marriage, but could also symbolize remembrance, "perhaps to the immortality of the person portrayed."[2] The presence of the fly on her head is said to represent the "impermanence" of life, reminding the viewer "that we’re supposed to do the best we can with the time we’ve got".[3]
The history of the painting is not known before coming into the collection of the National Gallery; it was purchased by the Prince Consort who gifted it to Queen Victoria in 1863. Victoria then gifted it to the nation, and it is now held in the Gallery.[4][5]
^ abCumming, Laura (February 23, 2014). "Strange Beauty: Masters of the German Renaissance – review". The Guardian. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
^Makowiecky, Sandra (May 2021). "No sofá com Huizinga: Autorretrato crítico assumindo a obra de arte como terreno da reflexão estética". Palíndromo (in Portuguese). 13 (30): 127–147. doi:10.5965/2175234613302021127. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
^Hickson, Sally (October 9, 2020). "Mike Pence's fly: From Renaissance portraits to Salvador Dalí, artists used flies to make a point about appearances". The Conversation Canada. Yahoo News. Retrieved September 29, 2023. Flies have long held symbolic meaning in the history of art. In portraits made in Renaissance Europe, the presence of a fly symbolizes the transience of human life (buzzbuzzpfft!). In the great scheme of things, our lives are no longer than that of a fly. For me as an art historian, the fly was a moment to reflect not only on the history of flies in western painting, but to begin considering what the long history of this symbolism may reveal about why the fly generated so much buzz.
^"PORTRAIT OF A WOMAN OF THE HOFER FAMILY , SWABIAN SCHOOL ". Country Life. Vol. 135. 1964. p. 75. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
^Francesca Whitlum-Cooper. "Why does this lady have a fly on her head?". National Gallery. Retrieved September 29, 2023.
and 20 Related for: Portrait of a Woman of the Hofer Family information
participated in the Dada movement Marta Hoepffner (1912–2000), artist, photographer Candida Höfer (born 1944), highly precise large-format depictions of guest workers...
Portrair oh Heinrih Tatichek, Portrait of Young Woman Lovis Corinth, Memory ofthe ball (aquarell), Forest (ink) Karl Hofer, Still Life Other Art Collection...
Leva Portraitof Giuseppina Holzknecht Lady with a camelia Enrichetta Spingher Hofer Ignazio Furlani Promessi The artist and his brother Portraitofa Woman...
list of movies is not a list of Napoleon movies. This includes films about Napoleon's life after ≈1799. About Napoleon's life before ≈1799, see the List...
Washington DC: The American University. Höfer, András (1979). The caste hierarchy and the state in Nepal : a study ofthe Muluki ain of 1854. Khumbu Himal...
horses. In 1907, she enrolled at the München Frauen-Akademie (Munich Women's Academy), where she studied with Adolf Höfer, Angelo Jank, and Heinrich Knirr...
Anne Lyles, The Great Age of British Watercolours (1750–1880), p. 318, 1993, Prestel, ISBN 3-7913-1254-5 Hofer, Philip. 1967. Edward Lear as a landscape...
This is a list of some ofthe most notable films produced in Cinema of Germany in the 2000s. For an alphabetical list of articles on German films see Category:2000s...
September 1924 by tenor Laurenz Hofer and conductor Leopold Reichwein. The songs were performed again at a broadcast in the Vienna Radio on 17 February 1929...
Lichtwark's eyes, the mayor's portrait remained "a failure". Liebermann had more success with his work Woman with Goats, for which he received the Great Gold...
professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School Myron Arms Hofer, 1858, professor in the department of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians...
born 17 July 1954) is a retired German politician who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021 and was the first woman to hold that office. She...
including the last 51 years of her life. She was the first woman botanist to be elected as a Fellow ofthe Royal Society (21 March 1946, at the age of 67) and...
King ofthe Elves"). This production featured in the leading role the soprano Josepha Hofer, who was Mozart's sister-in-law and later premiered the role...
Germany at the Venice Biennale (with Candida Höfer). He has since been the subject of several large retrospective exhibitions, including at the Tate Modern...
alphabetical list of documentary films with Wikipedia articles. The earliest documentary listed is Fred Ott's Sneeze (1894), which is also the first motion...
Andreas Hofer, Karl Kress, Walter Bornheim, Hermann Voss, and Karl Haberstock. A second set of reports detail the art looting activities of Göring (The Goering...
Council of Bern minutes ofthe 14 May 1998 5:00PM session Archived 13 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine accessed 23 November 2008 (in German) "Hofer, 281"...
Global Information
