Portrait of a Young Woman in a Green Coat

In contrast to the delicate, girlish, “warmhearted”, feminine half-length figures of Titian and Palma Vecchio, the painter presents here an ideal of beauty which appears cool, artificial, aggressive both physically and psychologically – it could indeed be described as Mannerist. The spatially constricting architectural backdrop also suggests this phase of Venetian painting, as does the hint at a “bashful Venus”, the charms of which are, however, provocatively revealed.