Portia from The Merchant of Venice
Portia c1886 del pintor britànic Sir John Everett Millais (1829 – 1896), illustrator and one of the co-founders of the Pre-Raphailite Brotherhood.
From The Metropolitan Museum of Art
En Shakespeare’s play The Merchant of Venice, the heroine Portia disguises herself in lawyer’s robes and outwits the moneylender Shylock in court, preventing him from extracting his infamous loan penalty of a “pound of flesh.
From The Useum.org
This picture was long incorrectly identified as a portrait of the actress Ellen Terry (1847–1928) in one of her most famous roles, Portia in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. De fet, it shows actress Kate Dolan (? – ?) dressed in the costume that Miss Terry wore in Act IV of the play. When the picture was exhibited at McLean’s Gallery, Londres, dins 1886, Shylock’s line describing Portia was quoted in the catalogue: “A Daniel come to judgement! Yea, a Daniel!”
X-rays and pentimenti(a visible trace of earlier painting beneath a layer or layers of paint on a canvas.) indicate that Portia is painted over a study of the same figure in Greek costume. An early photograph documenting the original image was published in 1899.
Es tracta d’una reproducció de vells mestres d’art digital retocada d’una imatge de domini públic.
Informació a continuació derivada de Wikipedia.org
John was a child prodigy who at the age of eleven became the youngest student to enter the Ruyal Academy Schools in 1840.
The The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood of which John was a member was founded at his family home in London, at 83 Gower Street (now number 7); and he became the most prominent member of the style.
In the mid 1850s Millais created to important paintings Christ in the House of His Parents c1849/50; which resulted in a considerable amount of controversy; and Ophelia, c1851/52; que es considera la plasmació del focus històric i naturalista de la Germandat.
Però a mitjans de la dècada de 1850 era evident que Millais s'allunyava de l'estil prerrafaelita i desenvolupava una nova forma d'art realista..
Aquestes obres posteriors van tenir un gran èxit, i va fer de John un dels artistes més rics de la seva època.