Miniature Portrait of Saint Fabiola in Red Tortoiseshell and Brass Frame

$700.00

Miniature Portrait of Saint Fabiola in Red Tortoiseshell and Brass Frame

Oil on porcelain, 19th century
Dimensions: 5.58” H × 4.75” W

This miniature presents Saint Fabiola of Rome (d. 399 CE) in the infamous profile pose, her head draped in a red veil. The image is painted in oil on a thin, oval porcelain plaque, a support prized in the 18th–19th centuries for its smooth surface and for enabling fine brushwork at a small scale. The plaque is set within a brass frame with red tortoiseshell inlay.

Condition: Good overall, with minor surface wear and handling marks consistent with age.

The composition and manner of this miniature belong to a visual lineage that grew after Jean-Jacques Henner’s celebrated 1885 portrait of Fabiola. Henner’s depiction, a young woman in profile wearing a rich red veil, became an iconic prototype and was widely copied in a range of media (oil, enamel, ivory and porcelain) for both devotional use and the decorative market.

Miniature Portrait of Saint Fabiola in Red Tortoiseshell and Brass Frame

Oil on porcelain, 19th century
Dimensions: 5.58” H × 4.75” W

This miniature presents Saint Fabiola of Rome (d. 399 CE) in the infamous profile pose, her head draped in a red veil. The image is painted in oil on a thin, oval porcelain plaque, a support prized in the 18th–19th centuries for its smooth surface and for enabling fine brushwork at a small scale. The plaque is set within a brass frame with red tortoiseshell inlay.

Condition: Good overall, with minor surface wear and handling marks consistent with age.

The composition and manner of this miniature belong to a visual lineage that grew after Jean-Jacques Henner’s celebrated 1885 portrait of Fabiola. Henner’s depiction, a young woman in profile wearing a rich red veil, became an iconic prototype and was widely copied in a range of media (oil, enamel, ivory and porcelain) for both devotional use and the decorative market.