French school

This curious drawing contains a portrait of an unknown, well-dressed woman holding a trio of entwined snakes, surrounded by a floral garland. A putto places two small birds, perhaps a pair of doves, in her lap. The sheet was attributed to the botanical artist Nicolas Robert by Peter Mitchell, and Michel Fare noted that if so, it was one of the few examples of Robert's work outside of the library of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris. Robert was celebrated for his use of watercolor and gouache on vellum, but while this drawing utilizes the same materials, the awkward quality of the figures and heavy painting do not compare favorably to Robert's work. The surface has also suffered and been extensively restored and inpainted, which accounts to some degree for the quality of the sheet.
The woman represents various virtues: clutching snakes in her hand is indicative of both prudence and caution, while the pair of doves are symbols of innocence. Taken together, these attributes suggest she is an allegory of Prudence and Innocence. With such a modest theme arises the possibility that this could be a marriage portrait. The sitter's hairstyle and dress are consistent with those found in court portraits from ca. 1630-1650. Fare proposed that the sitter might be one of the mistresses of Gaston d'Orleans, whome Robert portrayed in a similar manner.
A similarly formatted portrait of a woman, also in gouache on vellum, was on the market in 2006 (Christie's, London, 4 July 2006). Attributed to the Roman baroque botanical painter Giovanna Garzoni (1600-1670), the colorful drawing depicts the Grand Duchess Vittoria della Rovere as Judith, in a shell surrounded by a garland of flowers. Garlands also became popular motifs in France in the 1640s, thanks to Robert's frontispiece for La Guirlande de Julie, a manuscript commissioned by an admirer for Julie d'Angennes, daughter of the marquis and marquise de Rambouillet who hosted the most celebrated literary salon of the time.