Portrait of a Boy (said to be Alessandro Braccesi)
(Città della Pieve 1450 - Fontignano 1524)
Described as a “murky copy after Perugino”, the painting, previously attributed to Titian as well, is a copy of the Uffizi portrait by the Umbrian master. In the nineteenth century the subject was identified as the Florentine notary Alessandro Braccesi (1445–1503). This identification was then rejected due to the irreconcilable nature of the historic data, as Braccesi was already the secretary of the Signoria – and therefore no longer in his twenties – by 1474. Stylistically the painting replicates Perugino’s typologies in a fairly superficial and stiff manner.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Provenance
Rome, Collezione Borghese, recorded in the Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 39. Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Conservation and Diagnostic
- 1903-1905, Luigi Bartolucci
- 1966, Alvaro Esposti
Commentary
This copy of the famous portrait in the Galleria degli Uffizi (inv. 1890, no. 1474, Scarpellini 1984, Garibaldi 2000, V. Garibaldi in Perugino 2004), according to Paola Della Pergola (1955), could be identified as the “Portrait, manner of Titian” recorded in the fideicommissary inventory of 1833.
Immediately discarding the attribution to the painter from Pieve di Cadore, Adolfo Venturi (1893), followed by Longhi (1928), considered it “a murky copy after Perugino”. This judgement was doubtlessly influenced by the strong chiaroscuro contrasts that differentiate it from the Florentine original.
The portrait is still considered to be of an unknown young gentleman: positioned in three-quarter view, against a dark background, the boy with the melancholy expression wears a soft biretta cap and a brown tunic with detachable sleeves, in keeping with the fashion of the late 15th and early 16th centuries. In ancient times, his features had been likened to those of Alessandro Braccesi, a Florentine diplomat and humanist (Florence, 1445 - Rome, 1503). However, Giovanni Morelli (1874) rejected this thesis on the grounds that the chronological-biographical evidence surrounding the Tuscan man of letters was incompatible with the work of Vannucci.
Scholars encountered difficulty not only in tracing the identity of the subject but also recognising the authorship of the original, which was disputed by Riccoboni (1954) who proposed that it could be Lorenzo Costa. This was immediately rejected by Paola Della Pergola (1955). The authorship of the work in the Borghese collection is still uncertain, although it could be considered a late 16th-century work by a copyist.
Lara Scanu
Bibliography
- I. Lermolieff (G. Morelli), Die Galerien Roms. Ein Krtischer Versuch, I. Die Galerie Borghese am dem Russischen übersetzt von Johannes Schwarze, in “Zeitschrift für bildende Kunst”, IX, 1874, p. 77
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese in Archivio Galleria Borghese, 1891, p. 22
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 205
- R. Longhi, Precisioni nelle gallerie italiane. Galleria Borghese, Roma 1928, p. 221
- F. Canuti, Il Perugino, Siena 1931, II, p. 352
- A. Riccoboni, Perugino o Ferrarese?, in “Emporium”, 115, 1952, pp. 205-208 (in riferimento al dipinto della Galleria degli Uffizi)
- P. Della Pergola, La Galleria Borghese. I Dipinti, I, Roma 1955, pp. 93-94, n. 166
- P. Scarpellini, Perugino. L’opera completa, Milano 1984, p. 89 (scheda del dipinto della Galleria degli Uffizi)
- V. Garibaldi, Perugino. Catalogo completo, Firenze 1999, cat. A2 (scheda del dipinto della Galleria degli Uffizi)
- V. Garibaldi in Perugino il divin pittore, catalogo della mostra (Perugia, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria e Centro Espositivo della Rocca Paolina, 28 febbraio – 18 luglio 2004) a cura di V. Garibaldi, F.F. Mancini, A. Marabottini, C. Zappia, Milano 2004, p. 256 (scheda del dipinto della Galleria degli Uffizi)
