Little is known about these two portraits, which came to the Frick recently as part of the bequest of the New York collector Alexis Gregory. It is unclear if they were conceived as a pair, depicting husband and wife. Despite the fragility of the medium—pastel—they are in pristine condition.
The portrayal of the man as a pilgrim, with a black cape and holding a staff, may indicate that he was a member of the Pellegrini family—Pellegrini being the Italian word for pilgrims—or that he is someone who traveled on a pilgrimage. More likely, however, his attire is simply a costume related to the Venetian carnival.
These two pastels belong to a small number of works of art at the Frick by a female artist. Rosalba Carriera spent most of her life in Venice, then a popular destination for young aristocrats from all over Europe undertaking the Grand Tour—a tour of Europe that served as an educational rite of passage into adulthood. Many of these travelers would go to Carriera’s studio to have a portrait painted—one that could be easily transported across Europe.
That is how Carriera, who began her career as a miniaturist painter in Venice, became one of the most internationally acclaimed pastel painters of the eighteenth century, her portraits sought after by kings, queens, and emperors. Carriera’s pastels are technically innovative, remarkable for their soft edges and flat surfaces. By binding colored chalk into sticks, she obtained a much wider range of prepared colors, which ultimately expanded the visual possibilities of this medium.
Portrait of a Man in Pilgrim's Costume
The black cape the sitter wears and the baton he holds are typical attributes of a pilgrim. It is not known who the sitter is, but these attributes could be a reference to his surname—Pellegrini (Italian), Pilgrim (English), Pèlerin (French), Pilger (German). It is more likely, however, that these elements, together with the sitter's casually placed tricorn hat, represent a costume for the Venetian Carnival. In 1720–21, Rosalba traveled to Paris, where she became acquainted with Antoine Watteau (1684–1721). In a number of paintings, Watteau depicts aristocrats in pilgrim attire journeying to the mythological island of love. It is possible that this portrait was commissioned by a nobleman familiar with Watteau's art and desirous of an allusion to it.
