Raphael. La Velata, 1516.
I assert is that the feminine identity of this model is an important part of Jewish art history. Named a femme fatal as a result of the artist's death, her Jewish identity may be a factor in the reason they never married. Because the model wears a ring, scholars contest her marital status, even claiming her to have been a commission of another woman. When I saw this painting at the Pitti Palace Museum in Florence, it was unmistakable to me that she was Margherita Luti, Raphael's Jewish lover, a baker's daughter from Siena, also seen naked in "La Fornarina".
Raphael. La Fornarina, 1518-19.
This model was the Jewish mistress of the painter Raphael. Her name was Margherita Luti. It is reported that he died from a fever he received after an endless night of passion with his long time lover... The Jewess's feminine identity symbolizes an early version of the femme fatale figure seen in 19th-century French paintings, as her love was considered lethal to the artist. Marie Lathers calls this work, "the prototype portrait of the belle Juive." An example of an early characterization of this style may be viewed in the model's Orientalized headscarf.
Read more about Raphael's La Fornarina and La Velata.
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