Additional Images

Provenance:

The Gunther Wagner Pelikan Art
Collection, Hannover, Germany and later partially located on the family estate in Northern Germany (Gut Auermühle);
By descent to the present Private Collection, Canada from the consignor’s parents, Germany

Literature:

“Laura” Brittanica Encyclopedia, Brittanica.com;
“Laura de Noves”, Famous People of Provence, Avignon-et-Provence.com;
“Francesco Pertrarch’s Laura de Noves” University of California, shakespeare.berkeley.edu

Note:

The existence and identity of the humanist poet Francesco Petrarch’s beloved Laura de Noves has long been speculated. Laura de Noves is in fact Laura de Sade of Avignon. Laura was born in Avignon in 1310, and on April 6, 1327 Petrarch first saw Laura at Easter Mass at the St. Claire Church. Struck with desire, Petrarch left his vocation as a priest and began to write sonnets and poems about Laura. Enticed by the unattainability of Laura, she was married to Hugh de Sade two years prior to their meeting, Petrarch pursued Laura for twenty one years, until her death in 1348.

After her death it was confirmed that Laura de Sade was Laura de Noves, a title Petrarch had given her after the community of Noves near Avignon. In 1532, Maurice Sceve, like Petrarch a humanist and poet, had discovered Laura’s tombstone and uncovered a medal of a woman tearing our her heart and a sonnet which was attributed to Petrarch. It was these sonnets about his love for Laura which inspired many poets after Pertrarch, such as William Shakespeare.