Profile bust of a lady facing left
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Profile bust of a lady facing left” now? Collection: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Not on view at present. Checked September 25, 2026.
London, United Kingdom
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
This is one of 28 anonymous panels, painted around 1490-1500, which originally decorated the ceiling of a Lombard palace. They represent profile heads and coats of arms, enclosed within decorative borders. The heads repeat three generalised types with minor variations: seven of young women with Lombard hair styles facing left, as in this panel, six of young men wearing bonnets facing right, six Roman emperors within roundels facing left, and four facing right. Such decorative panels decorated the leading edges of the wooden joists which supported the flat, grid-like ceilings in the principal rooms of fifteenth century Lombard palaces.
Read on
The identifiable arms are those of the North Italian noble families of Vimercati and Malatesta. It is likely that these panels were commissioned to commemorate the wedding of Francesco Vimercati of Crema to a lady of the Malatesta family , which probably occurred sometime after 1487. Vimecati had a distinguished career as a Podesta, or principal magistrate, in several major North Italian cities, including Mantua, Reggio Emilia, Lucca and Florence. The location of his residence is unknown, but as two palaces of other members of Vimercati family in Crema have similar ceilings, it is likely that it was also in his native city of Crema, near Milan.
Victoria and Albert Museum
Details
- Accession number
- 1331-1901
In the catalog
Sources
- Victoria and Albert Museum
- Image: Victoria and Albert Museum — © Victoria and Albert Museum, London
