A Procurator of Saint Mark's
c. 1575/1585
Painter, Venetian, 1518 or 1519 - 1594
The folds of this imposing figure’s garment sweep upward in an unbroken line to his illuminated face. His hand projects toward the viewer. His costume is disproportionately bulky in relation to his head, emphasizing the sense of authority and grandeur.
An official portrait intended for an institutional setting likely would not have these traits. The Venetian system of government rigidly suppressed the cult of personality, and official portraiture demonstrates a penchant for conformity. It is unclear exactly who this man was or what level of authority he may have had, but this portrait was almost certainly created for a private setting. (Since the portrait entered the Gallery’s collection, the subject has been identified as a procurator of Saint Mark, one of the most prestigious offices in Venice, on the basis of the type of robes he is wearing, but it is possible he may have been a senator or another type of official.)
As is typical for Jacopo Tintoretto’s finest portraits, the format is minimalist. The shadowy background shows only a simple architectural form—perhaps the high plinth of a column or pier—barely sketched in. Aside from the sitter’s robe of office and the chair on which he sits, there are no further accoutrements. Nothing distracts from the emphasis on the sitter’s face, and in particular on his gaze, directed out at the viewer.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 24
Artwork overview
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Medium
oil on canvas
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Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 138.7 x 101.3 cm (54 5/8 x 39 7/8 in.)
framed: 167 x 128.9 x 9.8 cm (65 3/4 x 50 3/4 x 3 7/8 in.) -
Accession
1952.5.79
More About this Artwork
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Francis Richard Charteris, 10th earl of Wemyss [1818-1914], Gosford House, Longniddry, East Lothian, Scotland, by 1886;[1] by inheritance to his son, Hugo Richard Charteris, 11th earl of Wemyss [1857-1937], Gosford House; (Wildenstein & Co., New York), by 1929;[2] sold June 1949 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1952 to NGA.
[1] The Gosford House collection was largely gathered by the 7th and 10th earls of Wemyss, so it is possible the painting was brought to Scotland by Francis Charteris, 7th earl (1723-1808) and great-great-grandfather to the 10th earl (see David Carritt, "Pictures from Gosford House," The Burlington Magazine 99, no. 655 [October 1957]: 343). However, the painting does not appear in a 1771 inventory of Amisfield House (transcribed and published in Transactions of the Society of the Antiquaries of Scotland [Archaeologia Scotica], vol. 1 (1792): 77-84). Waagen records visits to the collection of Lord Elcho, the future 10th earl, at Amisfield House, and to Gosford House (Gustav Friedrich Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854: 2:82, and Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London, 1857: 437-441), and although this painting is not mentioned by him, he was not given access to the entire collection and so does not describe it completely. The first certain reference to the painting came when it was included in the winter exhibition of the Royal Academy in London in 1886, and was described as belonging to the collection of the earl of Wemyss. References through at least 1923 continue to place the painting at Gosford Hall, and the previous collection given in the Wildenstein invoice (see note 3) is "Lord Wemyss, Gosford House, Scotland." On the collecting by the earls see: Pictures from Gosford House Lent by The Earl of Wemyss and March, exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1957; "The Earls of Wemyss and March," in Dutch Art and Scotland: A Reflection of Taste, exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1992: 171; Shelagh Wemyss, "Francis, Lord Elcho (10th Earl of Wemyss) as a Collector of Italian Old Masters," Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History 8 (2003): 73-76.
[2] The painting appears in a Wildenstein advertisement in the 27 April 1929 issue of The Art News.
[3] The Wildenstein invoice to the Kress Foundation for 16 items, including this painting, is dated 23 June 1949 (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/81). The painting is described as "Portrait of Francesco Duodo." Some of the Kress Foundation’s paperwork during the acquisition process includes the title Portrait of a Procurator of St. Mark’s, possibly Francesco Duodo.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1886
Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1886, no. 144, as A Venetian Senator.
1931
Scottish Paintings, Water Colours and Sculpture, British Paintings, Water Colours, Miniatures and Sculpture, British Graphic and Applied Art, Old Masters, Stained Glass Exhibit, Canadian Paintings, Water Colours, Sculpture, Graphic and Applied Art, and Salon of Photography, Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, 1931, no. 116, as Francesco Duodo.
1938
Exhibition of Venetian Painting From the Fifteenth Century through the Eighteenth Century, California Palace of the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, 1938, no. 66, repro., as Portrait of Francesco Duodo.
1947
Italian Paintings, Wildenstein & Co., New York, 1947, unnumbered catalogue, repro., as Portrait of Francesco Duodo.
1988
Loan to display with permanent collection, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1988-1989.
2004
The Age of Titian: Venetian Renaissance Art from Scottish Collections, Royal Scottish Academy Building, Edinburgh, 2004, no. 68, repro.
2007
Tintoretto, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2007, no. 34, repro.
2009
Botticelli to Titian: Two Centuries of Italian Masterpieces, Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest, 2009-2010, no. 109, repro.
2018
Tintoretto: Artist of Renaissance Venice, Gallerie dell'Accademia and Palazzo Ducale, Venice; National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2018-2019, no. 138, repro.
Bibliography
1903
Stoughton Holborn, Ian Bernard. Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto. London, 1903, 1907 ed.: 108.
1915
Osmaston, Francis P. B. The Art and Genius of Tintoret. 2 vols. London, 1915: 2:192.
1923
Bercken, Erich von der, and August L. Mayer. Jacopo Tintoretto. 2 vols. Munich, 1923: 1:67.
1930
Valentiner, Wilhelm R., ed. Unknown Masterpieces in Public and Private Collections. London, 1930: n.p., pl. 28.
1931
Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931: pl. 414.
1942
Bercken, Erich von der. Die Gemälde des Jacopo Tintoretto. Munich, 1942: 118, n. 262.
1951
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 122, no. 51, repro.
1957
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:183.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 204, repro.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 128.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 115, repro.
1970
De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 120, n. 225.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 201.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 52-53, fig. 92.
1974
Rossi, Paola. Jacopo Tintoretto: I ritratti. Venice, 1974: 132-133, n. 154; fig. 152.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 342, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:467-468; 2:pl. 333.
1981
Rearick, W. R. In Italian Paintings, XIV–XVIIIth centuries, from the Collection of the Baltimore Museum of Art. Edited by Gertrude Rosenthal. Baltimore, 1981: 135, 145 n. 39, fig. 3.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 230, no. 289, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 393, repro.
1990
Chapman, H. Perry. Rembrandt's Self-Portraits: A Study in Seventeenth-Century Identity. Princeton, 1990: xiv, fig. 134.
2007
Butterfield, Andrew. "Brush with Genius [review of the exhibition Tintoretto, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2007] ." The New York Review of Books (26 April 2007): 12.
Wikidata ID
Q20176777