Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757) was a female painter active in Venice in the early 18th century and gained great international popularity for her sophisticated portraits using pastel. Initially less recognized posthumously compared to her male contempora...
Rosalba Carriera (1673-1757) was a female painter active in Venice in the early 18th century and gained great international popularity for her sophisticated portraits using pastel. Initially less recognized posthumously compared to her male contemporaries, she was rediscovered in the 1970s in the context of feminist art history and is now seen as a key figure in early 18th-century international Rococo. Unlike many leading artists of her time, Carriera lived quietly in Venice with her mother and sisters. However, her stay in Paris from 1720 to 1721 was a significant turning point. During this period, she gained new inspiration and built important relationships with top connoisseurs, collectors, and art dealers such as Pierre Crozat(1661-1740) and Pierre-Jean Mariette(1694-1774). These connections expanded her reach into a broader art market. This paper examines these details while also exploring how the exchanges between painter, patrons, and sitters make the genre of portraiture a rich object of art historical research. In short, this is an attempt to look into the relationship between the painter and the patron, which extends from transactions to mutual recognition, intellectual and intimate communication, and subsequent writings.