‘Painted Love: Italian Renaissance Marriage Portraits ‘
Thursday, 13 November 2025
An illustrated talk by Lucy Whitaker

Alesso Baldovinetti (c.1426–1499) Portrait of a Lady, c.1465, National Gallery, London
About The Talk
Between 1400 and 1600 portraiture developed dramatically throughout Europe and played an essential part in the rituals and ceremonies of the matrimonial process. Marriage alliances were forged between the rulers of powerful rival states and the nobility of Italy. As part of long-distance marriage negotiations, artists had to both portray an accurate likeness and advertise a prospective match. The institution of marriage was regarded as important for the stability of society and as sacred and Renaissance marriage portraits show this ideal state. They document the legal union of husband and wife, so intimate and personal but also public and formal, and celebrate the merging of families, wealth, power and land and the formation of new political alliances. This talk looks at the role marriage portraits played in Italian Renaissance society at all levels. Artists had the challenge of portraying both ideal beauty and the reality of a likeness. In Italy the beauty of a woman was seen as synonymous with her inner virtue as exemplified by Baldovinetti’s Portrait of a Lady. The question was, could they also depict that elusive component of marriage, the emotion of love felt between two people, perhaps glimpsed in the young man’s gaze of the Moroni portrait?

Giovanni Battista Moroni (1520/24–1578) Bust Portrait of a Young Man with an Inscription, c.1560 National Gallery, London
About Our Speaker
For twenty-three years and up until 2021 Lucy Whitaker was Senior Curator of Paintings at the Royal Collection Trust. Before that, she was the Curator of Christ Church Picture Gallery, Oxford and the Research Assistant at the National Gallery, London. Having specialised in Renaissance drawings at the Courtauld Institute of Art Lucy continued to research and publish on them throughout her career. For the Royal Collection Trust, Lucy helped care for the entire collection of paintings in the Royal Collection and their frames but specialised in the Italian holdings. Her publications on Italian art include the exhibition catalogue The Art of Italy Renaissance and Baroque, held in The Queen’s Gallery London and Edinburgh 2007-2008. Working on the exhibition Painted Love: Renaissance Marriage Portraits held at the Holburne Museum in 2023 was one of her most enjoyable experiences of the last few years and this talk has developed out of that work.
The event will commence at 7:30pm at
Assembly Room, Council House, North Street, Chichester
Prices: £10 members and £12 non members
We welcome payment via BACS, to Friends of Ravenna, Barclays Bank, Sort code 20-20-62, account No. 73194604. Please put ‘portraits’ in the reference area when you make your payment If you prefer to pay by cheque, please send it to ‘The Treasurer’, 9 Dolphin Court, Bognor Regis. PO21 1TP
Enjoy light refreshments and time to chat after the talk
Please book and pay by Saturday 8 November so that we have numbers for catering purposes.