"Titian's Schoolmaster"

c. 1575

Giovanni Battista Moroni

Artist, Italian, c. 1525 - 1578

Shown from the knees up, a light-skinned man wearing a loose, ink-black garment with a white collar leans back in a wooden chair in this vertical portrait painting. His body faces our left almost in profile, but he turns his head to look at us from the corners of his light hazel-brown eyes, the eyebrow closer to us slightly cocked. Crow’s feet line the corners of his hooded eyes. He is lit from our right so the side of his face to our left is in shadow. His slightly hollow cheeks are lined between his nose and mouth with wrinkles. His silvery-gray beard is trimmed close to his angled jawline and pointed chin. His gray hair is closely cropped hair under a velvety-black, three-pointed cap. The white collar is trimmed with stripes and a row of delicate dots along the edge. The man leans heavily against his left arm, closer to us, which is stretched along the arm of the chair to nearly span the width of the painting. That hand curls around the terminal of the chair, which is carved with a stylized flower in a disk. He wears a gold ring with a dark blue stone on the pinky of that hand. He marks the spot in a closed book with his other hand, and rests the book in the crook of the elbow draped along the arm of the chair. The book he holds has a sand-brown cover, and is about the size of a thick paperback novel. The crimson-red lining along the back of the chair, to our right, and the cushion on which the man sits is trimmed with rows of fringe of the same color. The background behind the man is deep, sable brown in the corners and lightens to tan around the man’s head.

Media Options

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Few artists could match Moroni's skill in depicting the appearance of his sitters, far less his ability to conjure the inner workings of their minds. The identity of the gentleman in this penetrating portrait is a mystery. For a long time the painting was thought to be by Titian and to represent that artist's ideal of a schoolmaster. But according to another tradition, the picture got its name because Titian admired it and learned so much from it. Whether or not the older master ever saw this painting, Moroni's strong, simple composition and trenchant characterization did impress two later specialists in portraiture: Anthony van Dyck and Joshua Reynolds both made copies of it.

The subject, dressed all in black, sits in a Savanarola chair that is seen -- unexpectedly -- in profile. He rests one beautifully drawn hand on the arm of the chair and turns as if to regard the spectator. With his other hand he holds his place in a book, thoughts of which, judging from his absorbed gaze, still occupy his mind. The white, embroidered collar sets off the face, and the asymmetrical points echo the man's uneven features. Even the bristly textures of the trimmed whiskers and clipped, grizzled hair command attention.

On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 22

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Widener Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 96.8 × 74.3 cm (38 1/8 × 29 1/4 in.)
    framed: 130.49 × 109.22 × 10.8 cm (51 3/8 × 43 × 4 1/4 in.)

  • Accession

    1942.9.45

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Borghese collection, Rome by c. 1622 until after 1793; purchased 1800 by Robert Fagan [c. 1761-1816], Rome, who sent it to England; sold to William Buchanan [1777-1846], London;[1] Walsh Porter [d. 1809], London; purchased before Porter's death by George Granville Leveson-Gower, 2nd marquess of Stafford and 1st duke of Sutherland [1758-1833], Cleveland House, then Stafford House, London;[2] by inheritance to his son, George Granville Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd duke of Sutherland [1786-1861], Stafford House; by inheritance to his son, George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 3rd duke of Sutherland [1828-1892], Stafford House; by inheritance to his son, Cromartie Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 4th duke of Sutherland [1851-1913], StaffordHouse; (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold February 1909 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] William T. Whitley, Art in England, 1800-1820, New York and Cambridge, England, 1928: 11-12.
[2] The 1809 "Catalogue and Description of the Pictures belonging to the Marquis of Stafford at Cleveland House" (Staffordshire County Record Office, D593/R/7/5) records the acquisition of the painting by Stafford from Porter, who died in May 1809. See: Peter Humfrey, "The Stafford Gallery at Cleveland House and the 2nd Marquess of Stafford as a Collector," Journal of the History of Collections 28, no. 1 (March 2016): 49, 51 fig. 7, 54 n. 40.
[3] In a Duveen Brothers ledger recording sales from 1901 to 1910, under Peter A.B. Widener's name for 12 February 1909, is this entry: "1 painting of a man by Moroni 'Titian's Schoolmaster' ex Sutherland Colection" (Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series I.A. New York House, 1886-1960, reel 4, box 5, New York Sales 1901-1910, page 182, copy in NGA curatorial files).

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1871

  • Royal Academy, London, 1871

1893

  • Roayl Academy, London, 1893

1924

  • Loan Exhibition of Important Early Italian Paintings in the Possession of Notable American Collectors, Duveen Brothers, New York, 1924, no. 28 (no. 48 in illustrated 1926 version of catalogue).

1983

  • The Genius of Venice 1500-1600, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1983-1984, no. 64.

2000

  • Giovanni Battista Moroni: Renaissance Portraitist, Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, 2000, no. 9, repro., as Portrait of a Cleric ("Titian's Schoolmaster").

2017

  • Venice: The Triumph of Beauty and the Destruction of Painting, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2017.

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.

1923

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro.

1931

  • Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 156, repro.

1935

  • Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 91, repro. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 92, repro.).

1941

  • Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 167, repro.

1942

  • Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 6.

1948

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 21, repro.

1951

  • Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 90-93, repro.

1952

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds., Great Paintings from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1952: 66, color repro.

1957

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 74.

1963

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 308, repro.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 95.

1966

  • Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:190, color repro.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 84, repro.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Central Italian and North Italian Schools. 3 vols. London, 1968: 1:288.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 250, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:339-340; 2:pl. 247.

1984

  • Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 223, no. 277, color repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 288, repro.

1990

  • Campbell, Lorne. Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th, and 16th Centuries. New Haven, 1990: 79-80, color fig. 89.

1992

  • National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 103, repro.

2002

  • Quodbach, Esmée. "The Last of the American Versailles: The Widener Collection at Lynnewood Hall." Simiolus 29, no. 1/2 (2002): 81, 95.

2016

  • Humfrey, Peter. "The Stafford Gallery at Cleveland House and the 2nd Marquess of Stafford as a Collector." Journal of the History of Collections 28, no. 1 (March 2016): 49, 51 fig. 7, 54 n. 40.

Wikidata ID

Q20176769

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