Francesco Sforza
probably c. 1480/1500
Painter
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on panel
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
painted surface: 69.5 x 59.5 cm (27 3/8 x 23 7/16 in.)
overall (with backing, collar, and cradle): 72.4 x 62.1 cm (28 1/2 x 24 7/16 in.)
framed: 103.5 x 92.7 x 8.9 cm (40 3/4 x 36 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.) -
Accession
1942.9.4
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Cardinal Antonio Barberini [1607-1671], Rome;[1] by inheritance to Cardinal Carlo Barberini [1630-1704], Rome; by inheritance through the Barberini family to Carlo's grandniece, Cornelia Costanza [1716-1797]; by her marriage, into the Colonna di Sciarra family; collection divided in 1812 and painting passed into the Carbognano branch of the family; by inheritance to Maffeo Barberini Colonna di Sciarra, Principe di Carbognano [1850-1925], Rome; sold c. 1895 in Paris.[2] (Leo Nardus [1868-1955], Suresnes, France, and New York); sold 1898 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park; gift 1942 to NGA.
[1] Leone Vicchi, Dieci quadri della Galleria Sciarra, Rome, 1889: cat. 1, first reproduced the painting, then in the Colonna di Sciarra collection. That the painting had been in the Barberini collection, part of which went to the Colonna di Sciarra (see Dennis Mahon, "Fresh Light on Caravaggio's Earliest Period: His 'Cardsharps' Recovered," The Burlington Magazine 130, no. 1018 [January 1988]: 17-18), is proven by its apparent inclusion in seventeenth-century Barberini inventories (Marilyn A. Lavin, Seventeenth-Century Barberini Documents and Inventories of Art, New York, 1975: 298, 338, 442, cats. IV. inv. 71.138, IV. hered. 72.59, VI. inv. 92-04.365). A 1671 inventory made at the death of Cardinal Antonio Barberini includes the following description of a male portrait: "Un altro [ritratto] d'Un huomo Armato con Berrettone rosso in Capo di Andrea Mantegna" ("a portrait of an armed man with a large cap on his head by Andrea Mantegna"). Another inventory of 1692-1704 gives the height of the same painting: "Un altro [ritratto] di un huomo armato in Tavola con beretta rossa in Tela da tre p. mi." The description, the measurement (corresponding to about 68 cm.), and the attribution (matching the spurious inscription) all point to the Gallery's panel. If an entry in a 1641 Barberini inventory (Lavin 1975: 167, cat. IV. inv. 44.240) listing "Un ritratto di un huomo armato, con una beretta rossa in testa, con cornice nera con filetti d'oro" also refers to the painting, the inscription would presumably have been added in the middle years of the seventeenth century. The inheritance from Antonio to Carlo Barberini may have been through Antonio's brother, Francesco, who died in 1679.
[2] According to Mahon 1988: 19, Prince Sciarra had several of his paintings brought to Paris between December 1891 and January 1892. That the Gallery's "Mantegna" was among them is proven by a passage Mahon quotes from Elisabeth de Clermont-Tonnerre, Mémoires, Paris, 1928: 1:132-133. Legal obstacles probably prevented Sciarra from selling the painting until 1895 or 1896 (Mahon 1988: 20).
[3] According to Widener collection records, in NGA curatorial files.
Associated Names
Bibliography
1916
Berenson, Bernard, and William Roberts. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early Italian and Spanish Schools. Philadelphia, 1916: unpaginated, repro., as Portrait Bust of an Elderly Warrior.
1923
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro., as Portrait Bust of an Elderly Warrior.
1931
Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 138, repro., as Portrait Bust of an Elderly Warrior.
1942
Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 5, as Portrait of an Elderly Warrior.
1948
Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 11, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 16.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 9, repro.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 32, 646, as by Francesco Bonsignori.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 36, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:75-77; 2:pl. 49.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 54, repro.
2002
Quodbach, Esmée. "The Last of the American Versailles: The Widener Collection at Lynnewood Hall." Simiolus 29, no. 1/2 (2002): 94.
2003
Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 547-550, color repro.
Inscriptions
lower center on breastplate: AN . MANTINIA / PINX.ANNO / M.CCCC / LV.
Wikidata ID
Q20174276