Young Woman
“Laura”
Giorgione’s 'Laura' (also known as 'Young Woman') is a Renaissance rebel, painted around 1506 when most female portraits were either holy virgins or wealthy wives. Here, a young woman with a serious gaze wears a crown of laurel leaves—likely a reference to the poet Petrarch’s muse—while her fur-lined red robe slips open to reveal one breast. It’s considered one of the very first secular female nudes in Venetian painting, essentially inventing the genre of the 'courtesan portrait' that would become hugely popular. She looks calm, but this painting was actually quite scandalous for its time!
- Dimensions
- 41 cm × 33.6 cm
Location: Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
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