Ask the Scholar

{
    "localId": "119017",
    "label": "A Woman Putting Flowers in Her Hair",
    "core": "obj",
    "dtoType": "object"
}

{
    "id": "119017",
    "contentType": "object",
    "title": "A Woman Putting Flowers in Her Hair",
    "description": "Scholars generally agree that Rosalba Carriera (1675-1757) developed the art of painting miniatures on ivory, in place of the traditional support of vellum, a fine animal skin. Although she became famous as a pastel painter, in her early career, Carriera decorated ivory snuff boxes-containers used to hold powdered tobacco taken by sniffing up the nostrils-for tourists. This miniature likely served as a lid to a snuff box, due to its elliptical shape in contrast to the oval or occasionally round shapes of most other miniatures. Although painters of ivory snuff boxes used watercolor, the same media artists used on vellum, the finished images on ivory were crude in comparison to those painted on vellum because ivory presents a greasy, non-absorbent surface, causing watercolor to run. Carriera revolutionized the art of watercolor painting on ivory through a process she termed her fondelli, or foundation. She developed a way in which to work in watercolor on ivory that emulated the soft powdery sophistication of her pastels. She used opaque gouache, essentially watercolor paint mixed with a gummy white, a combination of media which adhered to the oily surface of ivory. News of Carriera's innovation spread through Europe, and in the first few decades of the 1700s, most miniaturists abandoned vellum in favor of ivory.",
    "date": "c. 1710",
    "citation": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.1203",
    "rights": "CC0",
    "rightsUri": "CC0",
    "language": "en",
    "wikidata": [
        "Q80014209"
    ],
    "creators": [
        3670
    ],
    "genreSpecific": [
        "Portrait Miniature"
    ],
    "iiifBase": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.1203/1940.1203_web.jpg",
    "thumbnailUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.1203/1940.1203_web.jpg",
    "largeImageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.1203/1940.1203_web.jpg",
    "imageCount": 1,
    "source": "import",
    "dimensionsRaw": "Framed: 10.6 x 12.7 cm (4 3/16 x 5 in.); Unframed: 8.6 x 10.5 cm (3 3/8 x 4 1/8 in.)",
    "cul": [
        "Italy, 18th century"
    ],
    "accession": "1940.1203"
}

{
    "tec": "watercolor on ivory in a tortoiseshell pique-point frame",
    "tombstone": "A Woman Putting Flowers in Her Hair, c. 1710. Rosalba Carriera (Italian, 1675–1757). Watercolor on ivory in a tortoiseshell pique-point frame; framed: 10.6 x 12.7 cm (4 3/16 x 5 in.); unframed: 8.6 x 10.5 cm (3 3/8 x 4 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Edward B. Greene Collection, 1940.1203",
    "collection": "P - Italian 18th Century",
    "didYouKnow": "Its extraordinary thickness indicates that this is one of Carriera's earliest experiments painting on ivory.",
    "citations": [
        {
            "citation": "Oberer, Angela, and Rosalba Carriera. <em>Rosalba Carriera</em>. London: Lund Humphries, 2023.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 27-28, fig. 15"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Gesellschaft der Bilder- und Miniaturenfreunde (Vienna, Austria), and Leo Schidlof. <em>Katalog der Internationalen Miniaturen-Ausstellung in der Albertina, Wien, mai-juni, 1924. </em>Wien: Gesellschaft der Bilder- und Miniaturenfreunde, 1924.",
            "page_number": "cat. no. 133"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art, and Edward Belden Greene. Portrait Miniatures ; <em>The Edward B. Greene Collection.</em> 1951.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned: p. 38, cat. 84, p. 21; Reproduced: plate XXXVII",
            "url": "https://archive.org/details/PortraitMiniatures"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Lister, Raymond, \"The Edward B. Greene Collection of Portrait Miniatures\", <em>Apollo</em> LV (Jan. 1952).",
            "page_number": "p. 20"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Harris, Ann Sutherland, and Linda Nochlin.<em> Women Artists, 1550-1950.</em> Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 1976.",
            "page_number": "cat. no. 42"
        },
        {
            "citation": "\"Review of exhibition Women Artists: 1550-1950 at the Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute\", <em>Museologist </em>no. 141 (June 1977).",
            "page_number": "p. 5"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Sani, Bernardina. 1981. \"Pastelli e miniature di Rosalba Carriera nella collezione di Giovanni Guglielmo Pfalz\". <em>Itinerari</em>. 133-143.",
            "page_number": "p. 136, illus. pl. 61a"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Eschwey, Maymie. <em>Portraits in Miniature: An Introductory Guide.</em> Edina, Mn: Alpha editions, 1988.",
            "page_number": "p. 32"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Carriera, Rosalba, and Bernardina Sani. <em>Rosalba Carriera.</em> Torino: U. Allemandi, 1988.",
            "page_number": "p. 277, cat no. 17, fig. 15"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Sani, Bernardina, and Rosalba Carriera. <em>Rosalba Carriera: 1673-1757 : maestra del pastello nell'Europa ancien régime</em>. Torino: U. Allemandi, 2007.",
            "page_number": "p. 71, no. 18"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Arenas, Amelia, and Tetsuo Kinoshita.<em> Efude o totta redi: josei gaka no gohyakunen</em>. Kyōto: Tankōsha, 2008.",
            "page_number": "pp. 58-9"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The CMA Companion: A Guide to the Cleveland Museum of Art</em>. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 2014.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: P. 196-197"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Gentileschi, Artemisia, Eve Straussman-Pflanzer, Oliver Tostmann, and Sheila Barker. By Her Hand: Artemisia Gentileschi and Women Artists in Italy, 1500-1800. Detroit, Michigan : Detroit Institute of Arts, 2021.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and reproduced: pp. 164-165, no. 55"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Oberer, Angela. \"The 'White Rose' of Venice.\" In <em>Rosalba Carriera: Perfection in Pastel </em>edited by Roland Enke and Katja Paul, 43-54. Exh. cat. Dresden: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2023",
            "page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 44, fig. 1"
        },
        {
            "citation": "Banta, Andaleeb Badiee, Alexa Greist, and Theresa Kutasz Christensen. <em>Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artists in Europe, 1400-1800</em>. Fredericton, New Brunswick : Goose Lane Editions ; Toronto, Ontario : AGO ; Baltimore, Maryland : Baltimore Museum of Art, 2023.",
            "page_number": "Mentioned, p. 203, cat. 97, p. 204, illus. p. 204"
        }
    ],
    "url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1940.1203",
    "creditline": "The Edward B. Greene Collection",
    "updatedAt": "2026-05-29 06:09:11.870000",
    "imageUrl": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.1203/1940.1203_print.jpg",
    "sourceId": 119017,
    "dept": "European Painting and Sculpture",
    "coll": "P - Italian 18th Century",
    "med": "watercolor on ivory in a tortoiseshell pique-point frame",
    "creatorTags": [
        "female"
    ],
    "thumbnail_url": null,
    "image_url": null
}

{
    "seq": 1,
    "pageIndex": 0,
    "type": "photo",
    "url": "https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1940.1203/1940.1203_web.jpg",
    "mediaId": "6d73aec7062755ab"
}