Save Venice is seeking a sponsor for studies and scientific investigation of 13 pastels and a pilot conservation of Portrait of a Young Girl with a Bussolà.

*Published sponsorship costs are subject to change due to conservation plan modifications and fluctuations in exchange rates.

Please contact kim@savevenice.org today for more information and the latest cost estimates.

Rosalba Carriera was a pioneer in the 18th-century art world, mastering pastel portraits and miniature painting on ivory—mediums that few of her male counterparts pursued. As one of Europe’s most celebrated painters, Rosalba traveled to Paris and Austria to fulfill prestigious commissions, yet Venice remained her home base, where she ran a thriving workshop with the support of her sisters. Her reputation attracted an elite clientele, including European royalty. Patrons flocked to her Venetian studio, while monarchs such as King Louis XV, Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI, and Augustus III of Poland sought her work. Augustus III, her most devoted patron, collected over 150 of her pastels and even sat for a portrait in 1713. Carriera’s influence and success cemented her legacy as a pioneering artist in a field dominated by men.

The Gallerie dell’Accademia houses a corpus of 13 pastels, comprising 9 autograph works by Rosalba Carriera and 4 additional pieces attributed to her school. These paintings entered the museum’s collection through two significant donations: that of Girolamo Ascanio Molin on 24 February 1813, and that of Vincenzo Omoboni Astori on 11 February 1876—both direct descendants of patrons within Rosalba’s artistic circle. Among the pastels attributed to the former donation is the notable Portrait of an Elderly Lady, a work historically regarded as a possible self-portrait. However, archival documentation places the pastel in the tinello—a private room adjacent to the main dining area—of the Molin residence, and it has been suggested that the sitter may, in fact, be Teresa Maria Zimbelli, Molin’s grandmother.

Of particular significance are several pastels from the collection of Vincenzo Omoboni Astori, a descendant of the influential Le Blond family. These works are generally believed to depict members of the Le Blond lineage, including Jean-François Le Blond, French consul in Venice, and his brother Dionisio, an abbot and personal secretary to Cardinal Melchior de Polignac. A portrait of the cardinal himself is also included in this series, which Rosalba executed in 1727—the same year she recorded a payment of 60 zecchini from the consul. Especially notable within this group is the so-called Portrait of a Young Girl with a Bussolà, an exquisitely rendered pastel thought to portray the consul’s daughter. According to her diary, Rosalba commenced “the portrait of the daughter of the Ambassador of France” on 13 May 1725. Two years later, on 22 July 1727, she noted receiving a payment of 50 zecchini from the consul—likely in relation to the Portrait of a Boy now held in the Gallerie dell’Accademia.

Among the most significant works in the Accademia’s holdings is one of Rosalba Carriera’s late and arguably most introspective self-portraits—a pastel likely donated around 1746 to Giambattista Sartori and later acquired by the museum in 1927 following its passage through the Naja collection. This pastel is generally identified with the “self-portrait with a garland of leaves” described in 1733 by the art critic Anton Maria Zanetti, who suggested that it was executed shortly before the artist’s supposed descent into “a complete eclipse of mind.” While the work indeed appears to depict Rosalba with one grey-blue eye and one brown—possibly a consequence of siderosis following cataract surgery—the narrative of mental decline is more plausibly a literary construct, a rhetorical topos rather than a verifiable medical diagnosis. Executed when the artist was in her seventies, the portrait presents Rosalba in modest attire, her hair thin and white, and her expression pensive and subdued. The affective tenor of the image resonates with the iconography of melancholy, a disposition that, since the Renaissance, was closely associated with artistic genius and intellectual depth. The laurel wreath adorning her head is a highly symbolic attribute: not merely decorative, it is a deliberate symbol of fame, a self-acknowledgment of her achievements and international success as one of the leading artists of her time.

This restoration will be undertaken through Save Venice’s  “Women Artists of Venice” (WAV) program to identify, restore, and recognize the overlooked accomplishments of historic women artists in Venice.

Pastel is a delicate medium—being a dry technique, its pigment rests on the surface with minimal adhesion to the support. Carriera’s 13 pastels are executed on blue paper, a material commonly employed in Venetian graphic art, and are set within gilded frames. The larger works are mounted on canvas and stretched over wooden frames. Each piece is protected at the front by glass and enclosed at the back with a panel. All pastels show deformations in their supports, with pronounced undulations at the corners. Furthermore, significant detachment between the paper and canvas has left the works in a fragile condition. Structural weaknesses and fractures are visible along the edges and corners, while the frames and stretchers exhibit damage consistent with woodworm infestation.

Scientific investigation and a pilot conservation treatment of one pastel will help identify the most effective and minimally invasive methods for securing and stabilizing these fragile artworks.

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Portrait of a Young Lady
1720s, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
550 x 410 mm
(cat. 496)

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Portrait of a Young Gentleman
1720s, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
580 x 470 mm
(cat. 491)

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Portrait of a Young Boy (Portrait of the Son of Consul Jean-François Le Blond)
1727, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
340 x 270 mm
(cat. 445)

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Portrait of a Young Girl with a Bussolà (Portrait of the Daughter of Consul Jean-François Le Blond)
1725, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
340 x 270 mm
(cat. 444)

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Portrait of an Abbot (Portrait of Abbot Dionisio Le Bond)
1727, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
570 x 450 mm
(cat. 486)

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Portrait of an Elderly Lady (Portrait of Teresa Maria Zimbelli?)
mid-1730s, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
500 x 400 mm
(cat. 489)

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Portrait of the Consul Jean-François Le Blond
1727, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
570 x 450 mm
(cat. 490)

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Self-Portrait
1746, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
310 x 250 mm
(cat. 907)

Rosalba Carriera (1673 – 1757)
Portrait of Cardinal Melchior de Polignac
1727, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
570 x 460 mm
(cat. 485)

School of Rosalba Carriera (18th century)
Portrait of a Lady
Early 18th century, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
570 x 450 mm
(cat. 420)

School of Rosalba Carriera (18th century)
Portrait of a Lady
Early 18th century, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
570 x 450 mm
(cat. 421)

School of Rosalba Carriera (18th century)
Portrait of a Lady
Early 18th century, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
560 x 440 mm
(cat. 495)

School of Rosalba Carriera (18th century)
Portrait of an Elderly Woman
Early 18th century, pastel on paper mounted on canvas
410 x 300 mm
(cat. 446)

Favilla, Massimo and Ruggero Rugolo. Una “storiella un po’ troppo sporchetta”: il canonico Girolamo Ravagnan, la “Vita” di Rosalba Carriera e la confutazione della sua pazzia, in Carievich, Alberto (ed.). Rosalba Carriera: miniature su avorio, Verona: Scripta Edizioni, 2023, pp. 141-159. Link to the Article

Nepi Scirè, Giovanna. I pasteli di Rosalba Carriera delle Gallerie dell’Accademia, in Pavanello, Giuseppe (ed.). Rosalba Carriera, 1673–1757. Verona: Scripta Edizioni, 2009, pp. 373-378

Oberer, Angela. The Life and Work of Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757). The Queen of Pastel. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2018