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Shown from the chest up, a light-skinned man wearing a burgundy-red turban faces our left in profile against a dark background in this vertical portrait painting. He looks off to the left, and the eye we can see is light brown under a faint, possibly plucked eyebrow. He has a straight nose, and his full peach-colored lips are closed. There is the suggestion of a puffy area under the eye we can see, but the rest of his skin is smooth. His brown hair is mostly tucked under his turban, and a piece of fabric hangs down the back of his neck. A band of his white undergarment is visible at the high neck of his olive-brown shirt, which appears to be pleated or striped down the front. He also wears a black jacket, which covers his shoulder and most of his chest. A brown band across the bottom edge of the painting could be a wooden railing or ledge, behind which the man is shown. Cracks are visible across the painting, especially in the deep green background.

Florentine 15th Century

Profile Portrait of a Young Man, 1430/1450

Not on View

Medium

tempera on panel

Dimensions

overall: 42.4 x 32.5 cm (16 11/16 x 12 13/16 in.)

framed: 69.2 x 61.6 x 6.4 cm (27 1/4 x 24 1/4 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Andrew W. Mellon Collection

Accession Number

1937.1.14

Artists / Makers

Florentine 15th Century (painter)

Image Use

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Provenance

Alexis-François Artaud de Montor [1772-1849], Paris, acquired probably during his stay in Florence between 1805 and 1808;[1] (his sale, Hôtel des vents mobilières, Paris, 16-17 January 1851, no. 115, as by Masaccio). (John Hahn, Paris).[2] (Jules Féral, Paris); purchased June 1936 by (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[3] purchased 15 December 1936 by The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[4] gift 1937 to NGA.

[1] After a stay in Rome, where he worked at the French embassy and was in contact with the collector François Cacault, Artaud de Montor served as a secretary in the French embassy in Florence between 1805 and 1808. His collection was probably formed largely during that time; in 1808 it already numbered 110 pieces and two years later 150 works (see J. Perot, "Canova et les diplomates français à Rome: François Cacault et Alexis Artaud de Montor," Bulletin de la Société de l'Histoire de l'Art français [1980]: 221-222). A certain number of his paintings came, as he himself stated (Alexis-François Artaud de Montor, Peintres primitifs. Collection de tableaux rapportée d'Italie, Paris, 1843: 14 n. 1), from the collection of an Englishman who used to live in Florence and had created his collection about sixty years earlier. According to the hypothesis of Tancred Borenius ("The Rediscovery of Primitives," The Quarterly Review 239 [April 1923]: 258-271), the unnamed person could be the Florentine painter of English origin Ignazio Hugford (Pisa 1703-Florence 1778), whose vast collection also included paintings of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries; on him, see F. Borroni Salvadori, "Ignazio Enrico Hugford, collezionista con vocazione del mercante," Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa 13 (1983): 1025-1056.

[2] According to a statement by Agnes Hahn Brodie, daughter of John Hahn (recorded 1974 in NGA curatorial files), the painting was "discovered" by her father, "a small dealer," in Paris.

[3] According to the correspondence between Edward Fowles of the Paris office of Duveen Brothers, Inc. and Bernard Berenson (copies in NGA curatorial files), on the basis of a photograph, Berenson recognized the painting as a work by Masaccio and suggested its acquisition on 4 June 1936. A letter to Berenson of 30 June announces that the painting was acquired from Féral.

[4] The original Duveen Brothers invoice is in Gallery Archives, copy in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Artaud de Montor, Alexis-François, Chevalier
Duveen Brothers, Inc.
Féral, Jules
Hahn, John
Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, The A.W.
Sale, Paris

Exhibition History

2011: The Portrait in Renaissance Italy: From Masaccio to Bellini, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2011-2012, no. 3, repro. (shown only in New York).

Bibliography

1941: Duveen Brothers. Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941: no. 32, repro., as by Masaccio.

1941: Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 125, no. 14, as by Masaccio.

1942: Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 239, repro. 149, as by Masaccio.

1944: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. Masterpieces of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. New York, 1944: 20, color repro., as by Masaccio.

1949: Paintings and Sculpture from the Mellon Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1949 (reprinted 1953 and 1958): 11, repro., as by Masaccio.

1956: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1956: 16, repro., as by Masaccio.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 70, repro., as by Masaccio.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 84, as by Masaccio.

1966: Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:20, color repro., as by Masaccio.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 74, repro., as by Masaccio.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 216, repro., as by Masaccio.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. Washington, 1979: 1:181-182; 2:pl. 126.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 74, no. 18, color repro., as by Masaccio.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 153, repro.

2003: Boskovits, Miklós, David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 2003: 453-457, color repro., as by Masaccio.

2014: Staderini, Andrea. "Alexis-François Artaud de Montor (Parigi, 1772-1849)." In La fortuna dei primitivi: tesori d'arte dalle collezioni Italiane fra Sette e Ottocento. Edited by Angelo Tartuferi and Gianluca Tormen. Exh. cat. Galleria dell'Accademia, Florence. Florence and Milan, 2014: 426, fig. 5.

2016: Madersbach, Lukas. "'fatto alla spera'? Das Porträt des Leon Battista Alberti aus den Orti Oricellari." Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 58, no. 3 (2016, published February 2017): 319-347, esp. 336-337, 336 fig. 15.