Pietro Longhi painted small interior scenes recording everyday life in eighteenth-century Venice, often with a trace of gentle irony. A lady with her own hair or wig powered white, and wearing a dress with elaborate laces and wide sleeves, is receiving a cavalier.
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| ▲ Pietro Longhi, "A Lady receiving a Cavalier" 1745-55, Oil on canvas, 61.5 x 50.7 cm, The National Gallery, London, Bequeathed by Mrs Mary Venetia James from the Arthur James collection, 1948, NG 5841, Photo by SayArt Sims green. |
She has no interest in her sewing work. Her behaviour contrasts with the virtuous diligence of her servants to whom, as their social superior, she should set a good example. This type of painting satirizing the amoral behaviour of the upper classes was popular in eighteenth-century Europe.
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