Minerva (Fra Bartolomeo)

Minerva is an oil-on-panel painting created c. 1490–1495 by the Italian Renaissance painter Fra Bartolomeo, now in the Louvre in Paris.

He was also the first to link it back to Porcia (then thought to be a Saint Agnes or Virgin of the Annunciation from the circle of Lorenzo di Credi or of Franciabigio), which Sterling happened to have seen at the Istituto Centrale del Restauro in Rome.

The goddess Minerva appears in a niche, showing her attributes, the helmet, the classical armor, the spear and the shield decorated with the Medusa, as well as the sword tied to her belt.

The painting was believed to be part of a series dedicated to illustrious women, perhaps destined to decorate a room of a private palace.

The composition is very balanced, with an accentuated sense of the volume of the figure, obtained through glazes and chromatic combinations of great finesse, referable to the painter's early youthful phase.