| Maddalena Strozzi Doni is also a Lady with a Unicorn because she has a gold unicorn on the pendant of her necklace. The woman is portrayed seated and turned towards the viewer in a pose that is reminiscent of Leonardo’s Mona Lisa … X-rays of the portrait have revealed that Raphael initially posed his sitter inside a room, with her back to a window.
‘The same portrait form is employed in the two portraits of women known respectively as La gravida (‘the expectant woman’) and La Muta (‘the mute’).’ (Pierluigi de Vecchi, Raphael, Abbeville Press Publishers, New York, 2002) … and also in Dona Velata and La Fornarina.
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