The Counts Czernin

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Inside a church-like space with columns, pointed arches, and stained glass windows, eight regally dressed, light-skinned people stand around and look at a naked male baby held over an altar by a woman and a man in this vertical painting. The baby has wispy blond hair, long arms and legs, a narrow torso, and his facial features are proportioned like those of an adult. To our left of the baby, the woman holding the infant faces to our right almost in profile. She is smooth skinned with hooded brown eyes, a long nose, and a rosebud mouth. She wears an ocean-blue robe trimmed with gold, and a white headpiece covers her head and neck. Gold lines radiating from the heads of the woman and baby create halos. Opposite the woman, to our right, the man supporting the baby faces to our left in profile as he gazes down at the infant. Deep wrinkles line his forehead, eyes, and cheeks, and he is balding with silvery-gray hair. He wears a royal-purple, ankle-length robe over a garment patterned with stylized, ruby-red flowers against a shiny gold background. He also wears a red shoulder cape and yellow shoes with pointed toes. Directly behind the baby, an old woman looks into the distance to our left with deep-set eyes in her wrinkled face. She wears a moss-green dress and a white headdress, and she gestures with her right palm up toward the baby. A trio of people stand to our left, looking toward the central group. To our far left, an older, balding man with gray hair and a deeply lined face wears a red robe with a black hood. In his left hand, he holds a wicker birdcage shaped like a pitcher with a swelling body and a narrow neck, containing a slate-blue bird. He holds a wooden cane in his other hand. Two young women standing next to him both have almond-shaped eyes under arched brows, and delicate noses and mouths. Their blond hair is pulled back with tall, jeweled, black, gold, and red headdresses. They both wear black dresses trimmed with fur at the neckline, and sheer fabric covers their chests. The older girl, to our right, wears a gold, jeweled necklace. To our right of and behind the central trio, two men watch the proceedings. The altar seems to be placed within an arched arcade, with a view to a ruined wall and another building to our right. To our left, the gray stone wall is densely ornamented with stylized, leaf-like decorations carved along the molding and shallow gables. Beyond the altar, the building opens into a curved, apse-like space with three levels of arches and colorful windows.
Master of the Prado "Adoration of the Magi", The Presentation in the Temple, c. 1470/1480, oil on panel, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.28

The Presentation in the Temple

Master of the Prado "Adoration of the Magi" · c. 1470/1480 · oil on panel ·  Accession ID  1961.9.28

An older man with a tanned skin and a white beard is shown from the waist up against a dark brown background in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our right but he turns his head to look to our left. His eyes are shadowed under heavy brows. He has a long, hooked nose, high cheekbones, and the corners of his mouth turn slightly down. His brick-red cap, which is edged with gold, is an unusual shape. It sits low over his forehead and then rises at the back almost like a gourd. The cap sits over a white cloth that comes to points over his ears, and a cord hangs from each point to his shoulders. He wears a voluminous, deep rose-pink garment beneath a billowing, heavy gold robe. The rose-colored garment is streaked with cream-white to suggest a sheen, and it is belted around his waist. The gold, brocade-patterned robe is buttoned near the high collar but then flares open over his chest. The turned-back edge along our left is painted white, perhaps to suggest fur lining. Large, round, gold buttons the size of ping pong balls line the left edge of the robe opening. He wears a gold ring on his right hand, on our left, and he clutches the fabric of the robe near his waist with that hand.
Titian, Doge Andrea Gritti, c. 1546/1550, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1961.9.45

Doge Andrea Gritti

Titian · c. 1546/1550 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1961.9.45

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man looks off to our left against a moss-green background in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s shoulders and face are angled to our left, and he looks up and in that direction with silvery-blue eyes under flat, thin brows. The end of his short nose is slightly flattened, and his thin, pale pink lips are pressed together in an uneven line. He has the suggestion of a cleft chin set in a square jaw. Auburn-brown, wavy, chin-length hair and bangs frame his face under a black floppy cap. His dark garment has a high neck and falls in vertical folds down his chest. The earthy green background darkens around the edges. The artist signed and dated the painting, 1516, near the top right corner with a monogram of a capital letter D tucked between the wide, long legs of a capital A.
Albrecht Dürer, Portrait of a Clergyman (Johann Dorsch?), 1516, oil on parchment on fabric, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1952.2.17

Portrait of a Clergyman (Johann Dorsch?)

Albrecht Dürer · 1516 · oil on parchment on fabric ·  Accession ID  1952.2.17

Bibliography

1936

  • Wilczek, Karl. Katalog der Graf Czernin'schen Gemäldegalerie Wien. (1936).