Portrait of a Man with a Landscape View

1552/1556

Jacopo Tintoretto

Painter, Venetian, 1518 or 1519 - 1594

Maarten de Vos

Painter, Netherlandish, 1532 - 1603

Jacopo Tintoretto, with landscape by Maarten de Vos

Attributed to

Shown from the knees up, a pale-skinned, bearded man dressed in black gazes at us in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left, and he looks at us from the corners of his hazel eyes under thick brows. He has close-cut, dark brown hair, a short nose, a trimmed beard, and a bushy moustache over pale pink lips, which are closed. He wears a voluminous velvet-black cloak trimmed with sable-brown fur, and his far arm rests on a stone ledge under a window. The face of the ledge is carved in relief with leaves. The man’s other arm hangs by his side, and he holds a brown glove in that hand. A celery-green drapery behind him fills the right half of the background. A short span of wall leads to a window to the left, through which a deep landscape is painted in tones of tan, gold, and bronze brown. Hills, a fence, stairs, what might be aqueducts, and a castle-like complex are nestled against tall hills under a white sky shaded with light tan clouds.

Media Options

This object’s media is free and in the public domain. Read our full Open Access policy for images.

This painting belongs to a group of portraits by Jacopo Tintoretto and his studio that adhere to a similar compositional formula derived primarily from Titian: a three-quarter-length standing figure, with the body turned facing the viewer, and with drapery and architectural forms in the background, often before a window with a distant view. In this case, the identity of the sitter is unknown, and the location of the landscape in the background has not been identified. Nevertheless, the landscape provides important clues about the creation of the painting. Its style and pictorial technique differ from those in the landscapes in other Tintoretto portraits, which suggests that it was contributed by another artist.

Tintoretto employed workshop assistants throughout his career, and among them were a number of painters from beyond the Alps, some of whom were employed as landscape specialists. This particular landscape has notable similarities in style and use of color to the work of the Flemish painter Marten de Vos (1532–1603), who was in Venice at the very beginning of his career, from 1552 to 1556. Marten is said to have insinuated himself into Tintoretto’s studio in order to learn the master’s methods and occasionally painted landscapes for him. Based on comparison with Marten’s work both during and after his time in Venice, the landscape in the Gallery’s portrait can be attributed to Marten during his years in Venice.

On View

West Building Ground Floor, Gallery G16

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Chester Dale Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 110.5 x 88 cm (43 1/2 x 34 5/8 in.)
    framed: 141.6 x 118.1 cm (55 3/4 x 46 1/2 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1943.7.10

More About this Artwork

Scholarly Article:  Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century: Portrait of a Man with a Landscape View, 1552/1556

Scholarly Series:  Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Purchased 1839 in Bologna by William Buchanan [1777-1846], London.[1] R.P. Nichols, Esq., by 1868.[2] Robert Stayner Holford [1808-1892], Dorchester House, London, by 1887;[3] by inheritance to Sir George Lindsay Holford [1860-1926], Dorchester House; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 15 July 1927, no. 111); purchased by Hopkins, London. Leopold Hirsch [d. 1932], London; (his estate sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 11 May 1934, no. 136); purchased by (J. and S. Goldschmidt, Frankfurt, London, and New York). (Galerie Étienne Bignou, Paris); sold 14 December 1934 to Chester Dale [1883-1962], New York; gift 1943 to NGA.
[1] According to the bill of sale from Etienne Bignou to Chester Dale dated 14 December 1934, in NGA curatorial files.
[2] The painting was lent by Nichols to the 1868 National Exhibition of Works of Art at Leeds.
[3] The painting was lent by Holford to the Royal Academy's Winter Exhibition in 1887.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1868

  • National Exhibition of Works of Art, Leeds, 1868, no. 136a, as A Venetian Senator.[1]

1887

  • Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters. Winter Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1887, no. 139, as Portrait of a Man.

1894

  • Exhibition of Venetian Art, New Gallery, London, 1894-1895, no. 162, as Portrait of a Man.

1965

  • The Chester Dale Bequest, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1965, unnumbered checklist.

Bibliography

1901

  • Thode, Henry. Tintoretto. Bielefeld, 1901: 80.

1903

  • Stoughton Holborn, Ian Bernard. Jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto. London, 1903: 102-103.

1906

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance. 3rd ed. New York and London, 1906: 136.

1927

  • Benson, Robert H. The Holford Collection, Dorchester House. 2 vols. Oxford, 1927: no. 80, pl. 74.

1932

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places. Oxford, 1932: 560.

1943

  • Washington Times-Herald (18 July 1943): C-10.

1948

  • Tietze, Hans. Tintoretto: The Paintings and Drawings. New York, 1948: 381.

1957

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:183.

1965

  • Paintings other than French in the Chester Dale Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 9, repro.

  • 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.

1969

  • Rossi, Paola. “Una recente pubblicazione sul Tintoretto e il problema della sua ritrattistica.” Arte Veneta 23 (1969): 268.

1970

  • De Vecchi, Pierluigi. L’opera completa del Tintoretto. Milan, 1970: 112, no. 184.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972: 201.

1974

  • Rossi, Paola. Jacopo Tintoretto: I ritratti. Venice, 1974: 29, 131, fig. 30.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 340, repro.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:464-465; 2:pl. 331.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 392, repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20176737

You may be interested in

Loading Results