女騎手

Bryullov painted this in Milan in 1832 for Countess Yulia Samoilova, a wealthy Russian who was his patron, muse and close companion through his Italian years. It is a portrait of her two young wards, the Pacini sisters: Giovanina reining in a glossy black horse that has just clattered to a halt, and little Amazilia rushing out onto a balcony to watch, eyes wide. Dogs bark around the horse's legs. Bryullov gives the girls the scale and swagger of a grand aristocratic portrait in the manner of Van Dyck, all movement and sheen. When it was shown at the Brera academy that year, Milanese critics reached for the names of Rubens and Van Dyck to describe the young Russian who had painted it.