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Palma Vecchio

Palma Vecchio

1528 · Republic of Venice · Venetian school

The story

Venice in the early 1500s was the city of colour, where Giorgione and the young Titian were making painting glow, and among them worked a Bergamo-born artist we know as Palma Vecchio. The nickname means the elder, added later to keep him apart from his great-nephew, another painter called Palma the Younger.

Palma specialised in a particular kind of beauty, warm, full-figured women with cascades of reddish-gold hair, a colour so much his signature that art writers still call it Palma blonde. Sometimes they are saints gathered in a holy conversation, sometimes half-length beauties with no story at all, meant simply to be looked at.

He worked steadily rather than dramatically, and left a good deal unfinished when he died in 1528, still in his late forties. His will listed dozens of paintings in his workshop, many of them the same golden-haired women, waiting for buyers.

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Works

17 works
Resting VenusResting VenusPalma Vecchio, 1518Polyptych of Saint BarbaraPolyptych of Saint BarbaraPalma Vecchio, 1524Portrait of a young woman known as "La Bella"Portrait of a young woman known as "La Bella"Palma Vecchio, 1519The Adoration of the Shepherds with a DonorThe Adoration of the Shepherds with a DonorPalma Vecchio, 1520Holy Family with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and John the BaptistHoly Family with Saints Catherine of Alexandria and John the BaptistPalma Vecchio, 1525Bathing NymphsBathing NymphsPalma Vecchio, 1527Christ and the AdulteressChrist and the AdulteressPalma Vecchio, 1526Holy Family with St. John and Mary MagdaleneHoly Family with St. John and Mary MagdalenePalma Vecchio, 1508JudithJudithPalma Vecchio, 1526Madonna and Child with Saints Barbara and Christina and Two DonorsMadonna and Child with Saints Barbara and Christina and Two DonorsPalma Vecchio, 1508Mary with Child and SaintsMary with Child and SaintsPalma Vecchio, 1521Portrait of a PoetPortrait of a PoetPalma Vecchio, 1516Portrait of a Young ManPortrait of a Young ManPalma Vecchio, 1510Portrait of a Young Woman in ProfilePortrait of a Young Woman in ProfilePalma Vecchio, 1523The Assumption of the VirginThe Assumption of the VirginPalma Vecchio, 1513Young Woman in Blue Dress with FanYoung Woman in Blue Dress with FanPalma Vecchio, 1513Young Woman in Green DressYoung Woman in Green DressPalma Vecchio, 1513