148 When Rosalba Carriera was recommended as a miniature painter in a Venice guidebook in 1697, the target audience were travellers visiting the watery city as part of their Grand Tour. Thus recognised as one of the city’s “celebri pennelli” at the very beginning of her career, she proceeded to capture the likeness of Grand Tour travellers from all over Europe, initially in miniatures and later in pastel portraits. Carriera herself, on the other hand, rarely left her hometown. This was probably due to the vagaries and hazards of being on the road. Unless one was travelling in the entourage of a prince, these dire adversities made today’s travel inconveniences pale into insignificance. Even if there was a regular stagecoach service, covering longer distances took several days or even weeks. There was the constant danger of ambushes, the food was often poor, as was overnight accommodation. Moreover, it was by no means common for respectable women to travel overland alone and without male protection. So, it was certainly not a lack of interest or an absence of wanderlust that kept the artist from travelling, as can be seen from a letter she wrote around 1720: “I envy men’s circumstances only in one respect, namely that they are free to travel at will.”1 TRAVELS
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