This painting of a young woman with her head slightly tilted back, parted lips, low cut dress, and gaze that meets that of the beholder is a study in the coy sensuality so often encountered in French rococo art of the period. The painting lacks the formality of a commissioned portrait and is rather a study of female seductiveness meant for a male patron.
Rotari worked in his native Verona before moving to Vienna and Dresden and finally became court painter to Empress Elizabeth of Russia in 1756. This work is from his time in St. Petersburg.
<bdi><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Pietro_Rotari" class="extiw" title="w:en:Pietro Rotari"><span title="Italian painter of Baroque period (1707-1762)">Pietro Rotari</span></a>
</bdi>
between circa 1756 and circa 1762 <div style="display: none;">date QS:P571,+1750-00-00T00:00:00Z/7,P1319,+1756-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,+1762-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902</div> (<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/en:Baroque" class="extiw" title="w:en:Baroque"><span title="cultural movement, starting around 1600">Baroque</span></a><div style="display: none;">era QS:P2348,Q37853</div>)
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