Portrait of a Country Woman

The present work is a rare example of painting on glass by Giacomo Ceruti, painted during the final years of his Brescian period. It is a simple, unembellished portrayal of a young country woman against a plain background.

Reverse painting on glass is an age old practice. The main difference in painting on glass (as opposed to wood or canvas) is that the image is painted on one side of the glass, but viewed from the other. Thus, the paint must be applied in the reverse of the usual order, with the finer details painted first and the background completed last.