Portrait of a Man as Saint George
c. 1620s
Painter, Italian, active c. 1620/1660
The inclusion of a dragon in this intriguing painting suggests that the subject references Saint George, who according to legend tamed and slayed a dragon. However, the specificity with which the features of the sitter are represented indicates that the painting is a portrait. The man’s identity is unclear. A helmet rests near him. The flag’s design is that of the battle flag of the Order of the Knights of Malta. Contrasting with the heroic narrative suggested by these accoutrements are the elegant, decorative costume of the subject, his slender form, and his inscrutable expression.
The attribution of the painting has been the subject of considerable debate and has evoked the names of several major Italian artists of the 16th century, among them Jacopo Tintoretto and Dosso Dossi. The picture’s puzzling combination of qualities, which has led to such diverse attributions, may be best understood as the “retrospective romanticism” of a 17th-century artist looking back to Giorgione and Dosso through the lens of later painters. The most likely such artist is the 17th-century painter and printmaker Giuseppe Caletti, who was active from about 1620 until 1660.
Caletti often deliberately worked in the styles of Dosso and the great Venetians. The National Gallery of Art painting shows especially striking similarities to some of Caletti’s etchings.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 25
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
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Dimensions
overall: 83.8 x 71.1 cm (33 x 28 in.)
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Accession
1939.1.98
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
(Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome);[1] sold March 1932 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1937 to NGA.
[1] The first reference to the painting, in a letter by Roberto Longhi of 1929, a copy of which is in NGA curatorial files, does not mention the painting’s location, although Longhi’s opinion may have been solicited by Contini Bonacossi.
[2] The bill of sale that includes the painting, which is listed as Portrait of a Man with Flag by Jacopo Tintoretto, is dated 4 March 1932; copy in NGA curatorial files. A handwritten annotation reads "on records as: Dosso Dossi or Jacopo Tintoretto or Francisco Mazzola." See also The Kress Collection
Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1706.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1932
An Exhibition of Italian Paintings Lent by Mr. Samuel H. Kress of New York to Museums, Colleges, and Art Associations, travelling exhibition, 24 venues, 1932-1935, mostly unnumbered catalogues, p. 40 or p. 45, repro., as Portrait of a Man with a Flag by Dossi.
1938
Exhibition of Venetian Painting From the Fifteenth Century through the Eighteenth Century, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, June-July 1938, no. 24, repro., as Portrait of a Man with a Flag by Dosso Dossi.
Special Exhibition of Venetian Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection, Seattle Art Museum; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Montgomery Museum of Fine Arts, Alabama, August-October 1938, no catalogue.
1994
Jacopo Tintoretto--I Ritratti [Jacopo Tintoretto: Portraits], Gallerie dell'Accademia, Venice; Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, 1994, no. 5, repro.
Bibliography
1936
Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento: catalogo dei principali artisti e delle loro opere con un indice dei luoghi. Translated by Emilio Cecchi. Milan, 1936: 151, as by Dosso Dossi.
1940
Suida, Wilhelm. "Die Sammlung Kress: New York." Pantheon 26 (1940): 278, 280, repro., as by Tintoretto.
1941
Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 58, no. 209, as The Standard Bearer by Dosso Dossi.
1942
Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 243, repro. 99, as The Standard Bearer by Dosso Dossi.
Bercken, Erich von der. Die Gemälde des Jacopo Tintoretto. Munich, 1942: 148, as by Tintoretto.
1945
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1945 (reprinted 1947, 1949): 124, repro., as The Standard Bearer by Dosso Dossi.
1946
Longhi, Roberto. Viatico per cinque secoli di pittura veneziana. Florence, 1946: 67, as by Tintoretto.
1950
Pallucchini, Rodolfo. La giovinezza del Tintoretto. Milan, 1950: 107, fig. 182, as by Tintoretto.
1952
Morassi, Antonio. “Review of La giovinezza del Tintoretto, by Rodolfo Pallucchini.” Emporium 115 (1952): 240.
1957
Arslan, Edoardo. “Una Natività di Dosso Dossi.” Commentari 8 (1957): 260, as by Dosso Dossi.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 170, repro., as The Standard Bearer by Dosso Dossi.
1960
Arslan, Edoardo. Le pitture del Duomo di Milano. Milan, 1960: 33 n. 44, as Ferrarese, “dossesco.”
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 43, as The Standard Bearer by Dosso Dossi.
Mezzetti, Amalia. Dosso e Battista Ferraresi. Ferrara, 1965: 124, as by Tintoretto.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 36, repro., as The Standard Bearer by Dosso Dossi.
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 75-76, fig. 182, as_The Standard Bearer_, Attributed to Dosso Dossi.
Gibbons, Felton. Dosso and Battista Dossi: Court Painters at Ferrara. Princeton, 1968: 263-264, fig. 222, as by Nicolò dell’Abbate.
1969
Béguin, Sylvie, ed. Mostra di Nicolò dell'Abate. Exh. cat. Palazzo dell'archiginnasio, Bologna, 1969: 78, as by Tintoretto.
Rossi, Paola. “Una recente pubblicazione sul Tintoretto e il problema della sua ritrattistica.” Arte Veneta 23 (1969): 266, as by Tintoretto.
Zeri, Federico. "Review of Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Italian Schools XV-XVI Century by Fern Rusk Shapley." The Burlington Magazine 111 (1969): 456.
1970
Richardson, Francis. “Review of Dosso and Battista Dossi, Court Painters at Ferrara, by Felton Gibbons.” Art Quarterly 33, no. 3 (1970): 310, as by Nicolò dell’Abbate.
Béguin, Sylvie. "Review of Dosso and Battista Dossi: Court Painters at Ferrara, by Felton Gibbons." L' Oeil 183 (1970): 59, as by Tintoretto.
1971
Béguin, Sylvie. “Nicolo dell'Abate: étude radiographique.” Annales - Laboratoire de Recherche des Musées de France (1971): 59-61, repro. 60 and fig. 19, as by Tintoretto.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 201, as by Tintoretto.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 390-391, as Attributed to Dosso Dossi.
1974
Rossi, Paola. Jacopo Tintoretto: I ritratti. Venice, 1974: 25-26, 44, 130-131, fig. 21, as by Tintoretto.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 110, repro., as The Standard Bearer by Dosso Dossi.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:462-464; 2:pl. 330, 330A,B, as Self Portrait (?) as Saint George by Jacopo Tintoretto.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 391, repro., as by Jacopo Tintoretto.
1986
Gilbert, Creighton. The Works of Girolamo Savoldo. The 1955 Dissertation with a Review of Research, 1955–1985. New York and London, 1986: 476-477, as by Dosso Dossi revival, c. 1600.
1987
Rossi, Paola. “Paris Bordon e Jacopo Tintoretto.” In Paris Bordon e il suo tempo: atti del convegno internazionale di studi, Treviso, 28–30 ottobre 1985. Treviso, 1987: 29, as by Tintoretto.
1991
Martini, Egidio. “Alcuni ritratti e altri dipinti di Jacopo Tintoretto.” Arte documento 5 (1991): 107, note 6, as by Nicolò dell’Abbate.
1995
Rearick, W. R. “Reflections on Tintoretto as a Portraitist.” Artibus et Historiae 16, no. 31 (1995): 58-59, fig. 7, as by Girolamo Mirola.
1996
Hackenbroch, Yvonne. Enseignes. Florence, 1996: 124, fig. 133, as Attributed to Dosso Dossi.
Wikidata ID
Q20176273