Unique in Josefa de Óbidos’s oeuvre in terms of its composition, this small copper painting has only recently come to light. The novelty of the composition lies in the double framing of the image: an inner framed area terminating in a cusped arch, in which the scene of the Visitation of the Virgin to her cousin Saint Elizabeth is depicted, set above a scrollwork cartouche flanked by flowers, bearing an inscription with two verses from the Ave Maria. Josefa painted similar cartouches several times around images of the Agnus Dei or other religious subjects, but this is the only known instance in which she used the motif for an inscription.
2009
Lisbon, Palácio de Belém.
2015
Josefa de Óbidos e a invenção do Barroco português, Lisboa, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga (15 May – 6 September 2015) ed. A. de Castro.
2023-2024
Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artist in Europe, 1400-1800, Baltimore, Baltimore Gallery of Art (October 1, 2023 – January 7, 2024); Toronto, National Gallery of Art (March 27 – July 1 2024) ed. A. Badiee Banta and A. Greist, with T. Kutasz Christiansen.
- Josefa de Óbidos e a invenção do Barroco português, exhibition catalogue (Lisboa, Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, 15 May – 6 September 2015) ed. A. de Castro, Lisboa 2015, p. 84 cat. 17.
- Making Her Mark: A History of Women Artist in Europe, 1400-1800, exhibition catalogue (Baltimore, Baltimore Gallery of Art, October 1, 2023 – January 7, 2024; Toronto, National Gallery of Art, March 27 – July 1 2024) ed. A. Badiee Banta and A. Greist, with T. Kutasz Christiansen, Fredericton 2023, cat. 80.
Scholars &
Contributors
How to cite:
J. Caetano, Josefa de Óbidos. Visitation, in Gaudium Magnum Foundation. The Painting Collection, ed. V. Rossi, with T. Borgogelli and A. Marengo, Lisbon 2026.
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