Portrait of a Man
This painting was made by a seventeenth-century artist who has yet to be identified, although Venturi traced him in the Florentine milieu. The work was listed in the Borghese Collection for the first time in 1833.
Based on iconographic comparisons, the sitter is easily recognisable as Francesco Guicciardini, an important historian and political figure in sixteenth-century Florence.
In all probability, the painting is part of a series along with four other portraits of illustrious men, which are also in storage.
Object details
Inventory
Location
Date
Classification
Period
Medium
Dimensions
Provenance
Rome, Borghese Collection (cited for the first time in the Inventario Fidecommissario Borghese 1833, p. 25). Purchased by the Italian State, 1902.
Commentary
It is unknown when this painting entered the Borghese Collection. It appears for the first time in the fideicommissary inventory of 1833, in which it is listed as displayed in the Sala delle Veneri (Hall of the Venuses) of Palazzo Borghese. The work was later moved to various places in that residence, until it was recorded by Adolfo Venturi (1893) in Room X of the villa.
It seems very likely that this portrait and four others in the collection – Lodovico Castelvetro (inv. 448), Pier Soderini (inv. 523), a Pope (inv. 447, probably Pius III), and Michele di Lando (inv. 449) – are part of a series of illustrious men. These paintings all have the same dimensions (with the exception of the one of Pier Soderini, which is slightly larger) and many stylistic similarities, and they were always listed together (with the exception of the one of Pier Soderini) in both the palazzo and the villa. The story of the latter portrait follows a different track. In 1833, it was, unlike the others, displayed in the Gabinetto of the palazzo and attributed to a painter from the school of Paolo Veronese (Piancastelli, 1891). Then, in 1893, Venturi traced it to the Florentine milieu and reported it in Room XI of the villa. Therefore, considering that the painter was from the same school and the dimensions are very similar, it seems plausible that the portrait of Soderini might also be part of the series, even though it was never displayed with the others.
The artist who painted the portrait remains unknown. The artist is identified in the fideicommissary inventory of 1833 and by Venturi (1893) as a modest seventeenth-century painter from the Florentine school. He was clearly a very mediocre painter, who might have painted all five portraits based on older and more prestigious models.
The iconographic model used by the anonymous artist for this painting was probably one of the numerous sixteenth-century portraits of Francesco Guicciardini. The iconographically closest might be the one painted by Giuliano Bugiardini in about 1535 and now in the Yale University Art Gallery (inv. 1959.15.20).
There are no clues that would allow us to advance a theory about the provenance of this painting (the same is true of the others that might be from the series). We can justifiably imagine, however, that before entering the Borghese Collection, possibly through an acquisition, it had been purchased by a collector of modest social standing. This would not be surprising. In seventeenth-century Rome, it was common for paintings to be sold for just a few scudi, and there were even painters who dedicated themselves exclusively to making copies of famous originals.
Camilla Iacometti
Bibliography
- G. Piancastelli, Catalogo dei quadri della Galleria Borghese, in Archivio Galleria Borghese 1891, p. 89;
- A. Venturi, Il Museo e la Galleria Borghese, Roma 1893, p. 208;
- T. Casini, Ritratti parlanti: collezionismo e biografie illustrate nei secoli XVI e XVII, Firenze 2004;
- P. Cavazzini, Il mercato delle copie nella Roma di primo Seicento, in La Copia. Storia del gusto e della conservazione, a cura di C. Mazzarelli, San Casciano 2010, pp. 257-270.
