Fire (The Four Elements)

The museum calls these four pastels heads of character, and it is frank about them. A set of the four elements, in its view, was little more than a pretext for a small, refined series of elegant variations on a woman's face. Rosalba Carriera made the set between 1741 and 1743, each sheet about 31 by 27 centimetres. Here the element is Fire, and she gave it the warmest colours of the four. The girl has tawny hair and a peach-pink dress, and in her hand she holds a small brazier, the attribute that names her.