Venetian school, late 16th century. Circle of PARRASIO MICHELI (Venice, ca.1516-1578). "Woman with a Lute". Oil on canvas. Re-framed. Frame changed in the middle of the 19th century. Measurements: 101 x 86 cm; 111 x 98 cm (frame). Important painting belonging to the Venetian High Renaissance, a period of artistic splendour in the capital of the Veneto. The figures of Giorgione and Titian left an important mark until the end of the century. In the present painting it is above all Titian's influence that is most notable: the framing, with the rectangular window open to the landscape, and the courtesan portrayed in three-quarter view, as well as the dreamy but characterful type of woman (see Titian's Roxelana, for example), is here assimilated and masterfully resolved. The theme of the Young Woman with a Lute became popular in the 16th century, first in Venice, then spreading to other Italian and northern European locations. In the Venetian context, it was commissioned by aristocrats from their wives and daughters, but also from courtesans and muses. In any case, as the features were idealised, it was often difficult to identify the sitters. Until then, sumptuous portraits were reserved for royalty and celebrities. This canvas bears remarkable similarities to a work of the same name by Parrasio Micheli, "A Young Woman Playing the Lute" (now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston), painted at the same time, in the last third of the 16th century. The black almond-shaped eyes, the finely outlined carmine lip, the turgidity of the flesh tones, the hair curled and tied up in the same way, the pearl necklace, the position of the fingers of the right hand plucking the strings of the lute, the opening onto a twilight landscape on the lady's right... all appear in a similar way. It is tempting to venture that we could be looking at a work by Micheli, or at least from his workshop. The sensuality of the colours, the veils of the gauze, the brocades and the damask masterfully resolved between the silk trimmings, as well as the wide sleeves that reveal the arms, are elements that stand out in both paintings. The great contributions of the Venetian school are embodied in this delicate composition. Micheli's lute player's seduction is barely hinted at (in contrast to other female portraits by the artist, in which he sought a more evident eroticism), and this characteristic is also reflected in the feminine ideal depicted here. These painters were inspired by the poetic ideal of femininity established by Petrarch, which regained popularity in the age of Titian and Micheli. The son of a Venetian patrician, Michele Parrasio trained in Titian's studio, as is corroborated by indirect documentary sources such as a letter from Micheli himself to the King of Spain, Philip II, in which the painter stated that he had Titian as a reference for all his studies. He later became associated with Veronese, whose designs he regularly used for his own compositions. It is recorded that in 1563 he received an important commission: the painting of a large canvas dedicated to the Doge Lorenzo Priuli with the Senate and the allegories of Fortune and Venice for the College Hall of the Doge's Palace, which was probably destroyed in the fire of 1577. The painting, of which a sketch exists in Berlin, is known to have been installed in its place in 1569 and the artist was paid a considerable sum for it, an indication of the prestige he had achieved. He was also well rewarded for two oil paintings of two pairs of saints - Saints Prosdocimus and Justina and Saints Anthony and Daniel - commissioned in 1565 by the canons of Padua Cathedral and kept in the sacristy of the canons of the cathedral. Two of Parrasio's works are in the Museo del Prado.