Provenance

Barbo family

Italian

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A pale-skinned woman with honey-blond hair reclines among wheat stalks and grape vines in this horizontal painting. She lies on her side with her head to our right and her body facing us. Her upper body is propped on her left elbow. Her other arm is raised and bent at the elbow so her hand cups the back of her head. Her bottom hand rests on a tan-colored cloth spread under her, and her head tilts down as she looks with hooded eyes off to the left. Curls frame her face, and braids cross the top of her head. She has flushed cheeks, smooth skin, and pink lips. A mauve-pink garment wraps around her torso and legs but leaves her shoulders, one breast, and her bottom leg bare from the knee down. That foot disappears behind a section of a dark brown tree trunk that rises up the left side of the composition. A brick-red parrot with gold and black wings and tail sits on a short, broken branch there, facing our left. A slate-blue bird sits on the curving branch of a bush nearby, which has oval-shaped, moss-green leaves and delicate pink blossoms. Dark green grape leaves and clusters dangle over the woman from the top edge of the canvas, and almost span the width of the painting. Beyond the woman is a row of golden wheat stalks against a celestial-blue sky. The corners of the image are white, indicating that the painting had been shaped or framed to create an elongated, octagonal shape.
Jacopo Tintoretto, Summer, c. 1546/1548, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.90

Summer

Jacopo Tintoretto · c. 1546/1548 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.90