Young Woman in Blue Dress with Fan

Palma and Titian were at work in Venice at the same moment, and both were painting the same new kind of picture, a beautiful young woman seen half-length, made for a private room, with no saint's attribute and no story to tell. This panel dates from around 1512 to 1514, when Titian was still in his twenties.

The Kunsthistorisches Museum uses it to show how differently the two men handled the subject. Titian's women seem to glow from inside. Palma was after the surface. The museum describes how her hair, her skin and the material of her dress are given an evenness that makes them look almost unreal, their real character turned into ornament. Her face is idealised to the point where it could belong to several of his pictures. The fan of the title is only a slender detail in her hand.

Unlike the other Palmas in this museum, which hang together in Room 2, she hangs on her own in Room 4 of the gallery.