The Frick Collection may own some world-famous paintings, including three Vermeers, but it lacks the space to put on blockbuster shows. So staging an exhibition consisting of just one picture has its attractions. "Antea", by Francesco Mazzola Parmi-gianino (1503-1540), is a luxuriously dressed, radiant young beauty who looks straight at the viewer with a magnetically arresting gaze. Colin Bailey, the Frick's chief curator, was especially keen on borrowing this nearly full-length portrait from the Capodimonte museum in Naples, because he believed it would energise the Frick's permanent collection and give the museum a chance to produce important, original scholarship.
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