Petrarch’s Laura 

Alexandre Cabanel painted this rendering of Petrarch's Laura, a woman immortalized through the sonnets of the Italian Renaissance poet, sometime during the 19th century. During this time, there was a surge of renewed interest in the Renaissance, a period seen as a cultural and intellectual rebirth. Cabanel's "Laura" encapsulates the 19th-century fascination with both the distant past, and the romanticism of the feminine ideal. Petrarch's Laura was more muse than actual person; a figure onto which the poet projected idealized notions of beauty and virtue. Here, Cabanel dresses Laura in soft fabrics, adorning her with a laurel wreath, and depicts her holding a book, all signifiers of her association with poetry and intellect. Yet, her gentle gaze and melancholic expression hint at a more passive role, reflecting the era's complex relationship with female representation. This is a portrait of a woman both celebrated and confined by the male gaze, a tension that resonates even now.