Lombard School, 17th century

Private collection, Rome;

Anonymous sale, Rome, Bertolami, 24 June 2025, lot 207 (as Northern European School, 17th century);

Where acquired by the present owner.

This striking portrait depicts Barbara (née Urslerin) van Beck (1629-1668), one of the most celebrated personages in seventeenth-century Europe. Affected by congenital hypertrichosis—today often referred to as Ambras syndrome, after the Habsburg collection at Schloss Ambras that included portraits of individuals with rare medical conditions—Barbara achieved international renown at an early age. Born in Augsburg in 1628, she was the only one of her siblings to exhibit the condition. Her extraordinary appearance made her into a widely known quasi-celebrity who appeared before audiences across Europe, from London and Copenhagen to Paris, Rome, Milan, and Frankfurt, where she was presented not merely as a medical spectacle alone, but as a poised and cultivated woman of social consequence.

The present painting was likely executed by a Lombard artist after Richard Gaywood’s 1656 engraving, produced during Barbara’s second sojourn in London, in which she stands beside a small organ. An engraving by William Richardson likewise served as the compositional template for a half-length painting now in the Wellcome Collection, London. Here, however, the artist subtly departs from the print source: by enlarging the sitter’s bosom and accentuating her costly attire with scarlet elements, the artist emphasizes Barbara’s femininity and wealth. Her calm, self-possessed demeanor accords closely with contemporary descriptions of he sitter, most famously John Evelyn’s vivid diary entry of 15 September 1657, in which he recorded her luxuriant beard and hair with a mixture of scientific curiosity and genuine wonder. Married to Johan Michael van Beck and the mother of a daughter unaffected by hirsutism, Barbara is presented not as a medical anomaly, but as a confident woman whose presentation aligns with conventions of elite portraiture.

The painting belongs to a rare but important tradition of early modern portraits of women with hypertrichosis, including Brígida del Río of Peñaranda (painted by Juan Sánchez Cotán), Antonietta Gonzalez (depicted by Lavinia Fontana), and Maddalena Ventura (painted by Jusepe de Ribera).¹

¹ Madrid, Museo del Prado, inv. no. P003222; Blois, Musée du Château; Madrid, Museo del Prado, on deposit.