Una donna bionda

In Venice around 1520 there was a lively market for paintings like this, half-length pictures of beautiful, fair-haired young women who are not really portraits of anyone in particular. Wealthy men bought them, and successful courtesans sometimes commissioned them of themselves, as both a keepsake and an investment. Palma Vecchio became a specialist in the type. This woman, sometimes called Flora, turns to meet your eye and lets her white chemise slip from one shoulder while offering a small posy of flowers. The flowers hint at Flora, the goddess of spring, though Flora was also a common name for a Venetian courtesan. Even the hair mattered. That pale gold was the height of fashion, and Venetian women spent hours in the sun bleaching it, hats spread wide to keep the light off their faces.