Cariani

Cariani, Giovanni
Busi, Giovanni

Venetian, 1485/1490 - 1547 or after

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Shown from the waist up on the far side of a table or ledge, a man with a pale, olive complexion rests his arm alongside a small white dog lying on the ledge in this vertical portrait painting. The scene has an overall honey-colored hue over a palette dominated by blacks, olive green, and gold-tinged ivory white. To our right in the composition, the man’s body is angled to our left and he looks out at us from the corners of his dark eyes. He has a straight nose and high cheekbones. A mustache and trimmed beard frame his pink lips, which curve slightly up at the corners. His brown hair is brushed back from a pointed widow’s peak on his forehead, and it blends into the dark olive-green curtain hanging behind him. The high corners of his black robe are connected with a gold chain, and the robe comes to a V over a white shirt. His left hand, on our right, rests on the ledge, near the bottom of the composition. A small dog with pointed ears and shaggy, ivory-white fur is tucked behind the man’s arm, its left paw between the man’s thumb and forefinger. A shaft of black and gold indicate the hilt of a sword, presumably hung from the man’s waist. To our left, a dusty rose-pink book stands on a brown box. Upon closer inspection, an inscription has been painted in black on the upper right corner of the box: “VICO LO OPUS AETA.” Beyond the book, a view of a landscape through an open window fills the upper left quadrant of the composition. A person wearing a long brown robe stands on a path that zigzags into the distance, past dark green bushes and trees. Ice-blue, jagged mountains line the horizon. The sky above the mountains is parchment white and bands of slate-blue clouds fill in the top of our view.
Cariani, Portrait of a Man with a Dog, c. 1520, oil on canvas, Gift of Samuel L. Fuller, 1950.11.2

Portrait of a Man with a Dog

Cariani · c. 1520 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1950.11.2

Shown from the waist up behind a forest-green ledge or tabletop, a bearded man with a ruddy complexion strums a six-stringed lute between two, light-skinned people in this horizontal painting. The green ledge runs close to the bottom edge of the canvas, and the people nearly fill the composition. The musician’s body faces us but he looks up and off to our left with gray eyes under arched brows, with lips parted. His long brown hair is covered with a red hat wrapped with a pale, pink band. The ribbon meets in a bow-like form near the front center, and tassels hang to each side. His voluminous coat has wide, burnt-orange fur lapels and is lined with fur where it splits open over his shoulders. The garment below has dark sleeves. He lifts his right shoulder high over the lute as the instrument rests on the tabletop, with the neck to our right. The soundhole at the center is covered with rosette-like tracery. The man to our left has long, straight, dark brown hair and a cleft in his chin, which is darkened with a five o’clock shadow. He looks down and toward the musician with brown eyes over a long nose, and his lips are closed. He wears a black cloak with a fur collar over a white shirt, and holds a red book. To our right, a young person, possibly a man with delicate features, stands with his body angled toward the musician but he turns his face to look at us with gray eyes. He has flushed cheeks, a long, straight nose, and a rounded chin. He has shoulder-length, wavy brown hair parted down the middle, and he wears a red cloak also with a fur lapel, over a cream-white undershirt. A crumpled white cloth and a small, oval-shaped box with its lid askew sits on the green surface near the lute. The background behind the trio is elephant gray.
Cariani, A Concert, c. 1518-1520, oil on canvas, Bequest of Lore Heinemann in memory of her husband, Dr. Rudolf J. Heinemann, 1997.57.2

A Concert

Cariani · c. 1518-1520 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1997.57.2

Shown from the chest up behind a stone ledge, a light-skinned man with a mustache, beard, and shoulder-length brown hair, wearing a black garment with voluminous sleeves, tilts his head back to look at us from the corners of his eyes in this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled to our left but he tips his head back to look past his rounded nose at us with dark eyes from under arched brows. His right fist, on our left, rests on a closed book bound in moss green, which is fastened with a metal clasp. The book rests on the ivory-white stone ledge, which steps up to a higher level to our right. He clenches a wad of nickel-gray cloth in the hand on the book, and his other arm rests by his side, extending out of view behind the ledge. His black, long-sleeved jacket has full sleeves and is open at the neck over a collarless white shirt. A squared opening is cut into the elephant-gray stone wall behind him to our left. A cityscape beneath a pale blue sky is visible in the distance out the window. The Roman characters “VVO” appear to be carved into the front face of the ledge, at the bottom edge of the canvas.
Cariani, Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman, c. 1510/1515, oil on canvas, Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1939.1.258

Portrait of a Venetian Gentleman

Cariani · c. 1510/1515 · oil on canvas ·  Accession ID  1939.1.258