Aurelia
Artist: Antonio Mancini (Italian, 1852 - 1930)
Original Dimensions: 37" x 23 1/2"
Location: National Gallery of Art, London
About Artwork: (About 1906) "Aurelia Ciommi was a favourite model for Mancini in Rome, posing for some 25 paintings. Her nickname was La Cornacchia (The Crow), expressive of her sharp and animated features. Here, she seems to reveal for our delectation an austere and elegant Renaissance portrait bust of a woman in white marble in which she takes evident delight. Mancini’s studio was full of such props. While the features of model and bust are relatively thinly painted, the surface of the canvas, teeming with flowers, is richly painted in thick globs of pigment. Contemporary collectors found such abstract paint handling to be thrillingly modern. Another portrait of ‘the Crow’ has been left unfinished on the reverse of the canvas; there, tearing at her blouse, she seems to be having a fit of intense emotion worthy of a tragic actress. It is not clear why that painting was abandoned." - (National Gallery of Art, London)

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