File:Ottavio leoni, ritratto di nobildonna con vestito elegante, 1600-30 ca.jpg

English: "Although recently attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi, this bust portrait of a young lady shows the characteristic style of the artist around 1620. This date also corresponds to the hairstyle and dress of the person portrayed, who probably belonged to one of the most important Roman families of the time, such as the Colonna family or the Orsini family.

Trained with his father, the artist Ludovico Leoni, he specialised in the genre of portraiture, bringing extraordinary naturalistic qualities to his work. Many of his works, mainly drawings, are preserved in European and American collections. His portraits present the character, as in the case of the presented portrait, of a bust. The clothes gain in precision and meticulousness as he enters the composition, focusing mainly on the execution of the faces, where he concentrates the perfection of his technique. Characteristic of this painter is the way of blurring the contours of the face, mixing them around the nose and eyebrows. This "sfumato" also adds volume to the forehead and chin. In this sense, we find similarities between this portrait and that of Scipione Borghese at the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio, the Portrait of Cardinal Roberto Ubaldini and the portrait of Taddeo Barberini,

Prince of Palestrina. According to Gianni Papi* this painting must date back to the 1620s. Recently this portrait has also been attributed to Ottavio Leoni by Yuri Primarosa, author of the catalogue raisonné of the artist's work." [1]