Portrait of a Venetian Commander in Armor
Portrait of a Venetian Commander in Armor
- Artist
- Domenico Tintoretto
- Artist Dates
- 1560-1635
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Portrait of a Venetian Commander in Armor
- Date
- c. 1580 / 90
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Dimensions
- 72.7 x 55.9 cm (28-5/8 x 22 in)
- K Number
- K345
- Repository
- Allentown Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 1960.020.000
- Notes
Provenance
Dr. Gustavo Frizzoni [1840-1919], Milan; (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955], Rome and Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 10 July 1935 as Jacopo Tintoretto; gift to the Allentown Art Museum in 1960, no. 1960.20.
Catalogue Entry
Domenico Tintoretto
Portrait of a Venetian Commander in Armor
K345
Allentown, Pa., Allentown Art Museum (60.20.KB), since 1960.(1) Canvas. 28 5/8 X 22 in. (72.7 X 55.9 cm.). Fair condition; abraded throughout; cleaned 1951/52. Formerly attributed to Jacopo Tintoretto,(2) K345 has recently been more convincingly placed among the portraits painted by Domenico(3) at a time (in the 1580's) when he was still associated with his father, but had already won independent renown for his portraits. K345 is very similar to a portrait in the Musee des Beaux-Arts, Pau, which in the process of cleaning has lost the sitter's red senatorial robe and is now revealed as a portrait of a sea captain, in such a suit of armor as is worn by the sitter in K345.(4) Losses of pigment in K345, especially in the upper and lower parts of the face, contribute to the somewhat weaker expression here than is to be noted in the example at Pau. The view of a sea battle from the window at the left in K345 suggests that the sitter was a navy officer, perhaps an admiral. Provenance: G. Frizzoni, Bergamo. Contini Bonacossi, Florence. Kress acquisition, 1935 – exhibited: 'Golden Gate International Exposition,' Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, Calif, 1940, no. 121;' 'Twenty-Five Paintings from the Collection of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation,' University of Arizona, Tucson, Ariz., 1951, no. 14 of catalogue by W. E. Suida, as Jacopo Tintoretto, c. 1570.
References
(1) Catalogue by F. R. Shapley, 1960, p. 72, as Jacopo Tintoretto. (2) K345 has been attributed to Jacopo by G. Fiocco, R. Longhi, R. van Marle, F. M. Perkins, A. Venturi (in ms. opinions), Suida (see Provenance, above), and B. Berenson (Italian Pictures ... Venetian School, vol. I, 1957, p. 176). P. de Vecchi (Tintoretto, 1970, p. 134) does not accept the attribution to Jacopo. (3) P. Rossi, in Arte Velleta, vol. XXII, 1968, pp. 63 f, and vol. XXIII, 1969, p. 270. (4) See Rossi (pp. 61, 63 of first op. cit. in note 4, above) for discussion of the Pau portrait. The shadowgraphs of both K345 and the Pau picture are very different from shadowgraphs of characteristic paintings by Jacopo Tintoretto.