Monsignor della Casa
probably 1541/1544
Artist, Florentine, 1494 - 1556/1557
Giovanni della Casa, who is in all likelihood the subject of this portrait, belonged to a wealthy Tuscan family and rose to prominence in the service of the church. As poet, humanist, and political theorist, he circulated at the highest levels of Italian intellectual life. Della Casa also wrote a book on manners, and in this portrait of the early 1540s displays the sober self-possession espoused in that work. When Pontormo painted this image, della Casa was in his early thirties and acting in Florence as Apostolic Commissioner of taxes. Pontormo shows the monsignor in a dim interior, and although the architectural details are few, they suggest that the building is Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral of Florence.
Pontormo's mannerist style was a brilliantly expressive synthesis of fantasy and acute observation of nature. Here the balance is tilted in favor of visible reality, but a reality intensified by plausible exaggerations. For example, the monsignor's small head is made to look even smaller by the huge conical bulk of his caped torso looming so close to the picture plane and brushing the sides of the frame.
West Building Main Floor, Gallery 21
Artwork overview
-
Medium
oil on panel
-
Credit Line
-
Dimensions
overall: 102 x 78.9 cm (40 3/16 x 31 1/16 in.)
framed: 134 x 112.4 x 10.2 cm (52 3/4 x 44 1/4 x 4 in.) -
Accession
1961.9.83
Artwork history & notes
Provenance
Marchese Bargagli [family of the sitter], Florence. (Trotti et Cie., Paris, by 1909, as by Sebastiano del Piombo);[1] on joint account 1912-1922 with (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris); (Trotti et Cie., Paris), from 1922. (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence and Rome). (D'Atri, Paris and Rome). (Pinakos, Inc., New York) on joint account with (M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York and Paris); sold 6 February 1952 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[2] gift 1961 to NGA.
[1] The painting was exhibited at Galerie Trotti in 1909.
[2] M. Knoedler & Co. Records, accession number 2012.M.54, Research Library, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles: Series II, Box 76, Paintings, 1945-1953, Sales book no. 16 (copy in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1500). The painting is listed as by Sebastiano del Piombo.
Associated Names
Exhibition History
1909
Tableaux anciens de l'école italienne, Galerie Trotti, Paris, 1909, no. 12.
1956
Mostra del Pontormo e del Primo Manierismo Fiorentino, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1956, no. 76, pl. LXI (no. 84, pl. LXXVII in second edition of the catalogue).
2002
Magnificenza! The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence (in Italy, L'ombra del genio: Michelangelo e l'arte Firenze, 1537-1631), Palazzo Strozzi, Florence; Art Institute of Chicago; Detroit Institute of Arts, 2002-2003, no. 32.
2004
Pontormo, Bronzino, and the Medici: The Transformation of the Renaissance Portrait in Florence, Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2004-2005, no. 45, repro., as Giovanni della Casa.
2014
Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. Diverging Paths of Mannerism, Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 2014, no. IV.1.5, repro., as Portrait of a Bishop (Monsignor Niccolo Ardinghelli?).
2022
Wealth and Beauty: Pier Francesco Foschi and Painting in Florence, Georgia Museum of Art, University of Georgia, Athens 2022, no. 30, repro.
Bibliography
1901
Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell’arte italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 4, part 5(1932):82.
1909
Lafenestre, Georges. “Un exposition de tableaux anciens.” Revue de l’art ancien et moderne 25 (1909): 12, as by Sebastiano del Piombo.
1914
Bode, Wilhelm von. “Ein Paar neuaufgefundene Gemälde des Sebastiano del Piombo.” Jahrbuch der Preussischen Kunstsammlungen 35 (1914): 6, as by Sebastiano del Piombo.
1942
Dussler, Luitpold. Sebastiano del Piombo. Basel, 1942, no. 77, as by Sebastiano del Piombo.
1946
Suida, William E. "Titian's Portraits, Originals and Reconstructions." Gazette des Beaux-Arts (March 1946): 144, repro. 149.
1956
Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1951-56. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida and Fern Rusk Shapley. National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1956: 142, no. 55, repro.
Sanminiatelli, Donato. “The Pontormo Exhibition in Florence.” The Burlington Magazine 98 (1956): 243.
Oertel, Robert. “Pontormo und florentiner Frühmanierismus.” Kunstchronik 9 (1956): 217.
1959
Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 109, repro.
1963
Sinibaldi, Giulia. "Un disegno del Pontormo." Paragone 14, no. 165 (September 1963):41-42, repro.
Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:182.
1964
Forster, Kurt W. "Probleme um Pontormos Porträtmalerei (I)," Pantheon 22, no. 6 (Novemver - December 1964):380-381
Cox-Rearick, Janet. The Drawings of Pontormo. 2 vols. Cambridge, MA, 1964: 1:309-310.
1965
Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 104.
Berti, Luciano. Pontormo. Disegni. Florence, 1965: under entry for pl. LVI v.
1966
Cairns, Huntington, and John Walker, eds. A Pageant of Painting from the National Gallery of Art. 2 vols. New York, 1966: 1:136, color repro.
Forster, Kurt W. Pontormo: Monographie mit kritischem Katalog. Munich, 1966: 107, 146-147, cat. 44, pl. IX, fig. 106, as Portrait of Niccolo Ardinghelli.
Berti, Luciano. Pontormo. Florence, 1966: CLXVIII-CLXIX, repro.
Hirst, Michael. “Perino del Vaga and his Circle.” The Burlington Magazine 108, no. 761 (1966): 405 n. 20.
1968
National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 92, repro.
1972
Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 168, 647.
1973
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XVI-XVIII Century. London, 1973: 11-12, fig. 17.
De Chiaro, Tommaso. Pontormo ritrattista. Rome, 1973: 23.
Berti, Luciano. L’opera completa del Pontormo. Milan, 1973: 107, cat. 126, pl. LXIV, as Niccolò Ardinghelli.
1975
European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 272, repro.
1979
Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:377-379; 2:pl. 273.
1980
Lucco, Mauro. L’opera completa di Sebastiano del Piombo. Milan, 1980: 144.
Bellosi, Luciano. “Il ritratto fiorentino del Cinquecento.” In Firenze e la Toscana dei Medici nell’Europa del Cinquecento. 5 vols. Exh. cat., Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, 1980: 1(Il primato del disegno):42.
1981
Hirst, Michael. Sebastiano del Piombo. Oxford, 1981: 127.
Cox-Rearick, Janet. The Drawings of Pontormo. A Catalogue Raisonné with Notes on the Paintings. 2nd edition. New York, 1981: 357-358.
1982
Cox-Rearick, Janet. "Bronzino's Young Woman with Her Little Boy." Studies in the History of Art 12 (1982): 70-71, repro.
1983
Cox-Rearick, Janet, and Sydney J. Freedberg. “A Pontormo (partly) recovered.” The Burlington Magazine 125, no. 966 (1983): 521 n. 1, as Niccolò Ardinghelli.
1984
Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 187, no. 211, color repro.
1985
European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 317, repro.
1991
Petrioli Tofani, Annamaria, ed. Inventario: disegni di figura, 1. Florence, 1991: 190-191.
1992
National Gallery of Art, Washington. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 99, repro.
Langdon, Gabrielle. “Pontormo and Medici Lineages: Maria Salviati, Alessandro, Giulia and Giulio de’ Medici.” RACAR: Revue d’art Canadienne 19, no. 1/2 (1992): 27
1993
Berti, Luciano. Pontormo e il suo tempo. Florence, 1993: 264, repro., as Portrait of Niccolò Ardinghelli.
1994
Costamagna, Philippe. Pontormo. Milan, 1994: 11, 90, 196, 221, 245-247, cat. 80, 294.
Nigro, Salvatore S. Pontormo. Milan, 1994: 178-179, repro., as Portrait of Niccolò Ardinghelli.
Forlani Tempesti, Anna, and Alessandra Giovannetti. Pontormo. Florence, 1994: 142-143.
1995
Conti, Alessandro. Pontormo. Milan, 1995: 56, fig. 69.
Falciani, Carlo. “Maria Salviati ritratta del Pontormo.” In Antonio Natali, ed. Rosso e Pontormo: fierezza e solitudine. Esercizi di lettura e rendiconti di restauro per tre dipinti degli Uffizi. Soresina, 1995: 131, fig. 9, as Portrait of Niccolò Ardinghelli.
1997
Arasse, Daniel, and Andreas Tönnesmann. La Renaissance maniériste. Paris, 1997: 460, no. 294, repro.
1999
Terribile, Claudia. “Il volto napoletano di monsignore della Casa.” Venezia Cinquecento 9, no. 17 (1999): 55-61.
2000
Fedi, Roberto. “Un ritratto di Giovanni Della Casa.” In Vitilio Masiello, ed. Studi di filologia e letteratura italiana in onore di Gianvito Resta. Rome, 2000: 1:355-377.
2003
Chong, Alan, Donatella Pegazzano, and Dimitrios Zikos, eds. Raphael, Cellini & a Renaissance Banker: The Patronage of Bindo Altoviti. Exh. cat. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, 2003: 339.
2004
Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: 99, no. 75, color repro.
Pinelli, Antonio. La bellezza impura: arte e politica nell’Italia del Rinascimento. Bari, 2004: 142.
2006
Terribile, Claudia. “Quale volto per monsignor Della Casa.” In Amedeo Quondam, ed. Giovanni della Casa: Un seminario per il Centenario. Rome, 2006: 79-130, fig. 1, as Portrait of a Bishop (Niccolò Ardinghelli?).
2010
Costamagna, Philippe. Un capolavoro del Rinascimento. Pontormo, Ritratto di Gentiluomo. Milan, 2010: 10, 13, 14, 18, fig. 1.
2014
Falciani, Carlo, and Antonio Natali. Pontormo. Milan, 2014: 205, repro. 206, as Portrait of a Bishop (Monsignor Niccolò Ardinghelli?).
Wikidata ID
Q3937750