Portrait of a Woman with a Basket of Spindles

A young woman turns as if interrupted, one hand resting on a basket of spindles, the wooden tools used for spinning thread. Everyday work sits quietly inside a formal portrait, which was unusual. The painting is usually dated to about 1514, early in Andrea's career, though not everyone agrees it is his. Some scholars give it to his gifted pupil Pontormo, others to a later follower, and one reading pushes the date forward on the evidence of the sitter's dress. Tradition holds that the woman is Lucrezia del Fede, whom Andrea married around this time. Whoever painted her, the portrait stayed with Lucrezia for the rest of her long life. She outlived Andrea by some 40 years, and the panel was still hers when she died.