Portrait of a Man

c. 1495

Alvise Vivarini

Painter, Venetian, 1442/1453 - 1503/1505

Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned, clean-shaven man with brown hair and wearing brown looks up and slightly to our right in this vertical portrait painting. The man’s brown eyes gaze up under low, dark brows. He has a square face with a rounded nose, a wide chin, and his thin lips are closed. Wavy brown hair falls almost to his shoulders from under an earth-brown, brimless cap. Vertical pleats fall from the high neck of his coffee-brown garment, which is lined with a narrow band of white at the neck. The man is lit brightly from our left, but his clothing and hair nearly blend into the dark brown background.

Media Options

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On View

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 12

Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on panel

  • Credit Line

    Samuel H. Kress Collection

  • Dimensions

    overall: 34.9 x 30.8 cm (13 3/4 x 12 1/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1939.1.355

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Probably Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London; sold to Sir Frederick Cook, 1st bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, and bought back by Robinson; sold 1892 to Martine-Marie-Pol de Behague, comtesse de Béarn [1869 or 1870-1939], Paris;[1] sold December 1917 to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London and New York);[2] sold March 1937 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA.
[1] A note by Ellis Waterhouse (in NGA curatorial files), dated 22 July 1980, states that notebooks of Sir J.C. Robinson in the Department of Western Art Archive, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, seem to show that the painting was bought or bought back by him from Sir Frederick Cook for 400 Pounds and sold as Antonello in 1892 to the comtesse de Béarn for 1600 Pounds. As Francis Cook was still alive and actively collecting at this time, Waterhouse almost certainly meant to indicate Francis and not Frederick; in any case, Frederick appears to have had little interest in art collecting.
[2] According to the X Book, Reel 422, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles (copy in NGA curatorial files).
[3] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of twenty-four paintings, including "A Portrait of a Man by Giovanni Bellini," is dated 9 March 1937; the provenance is given as "Comtesse de Béarn Collection" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1689.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1894

  • Berenson, Bernard. The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance. New York and London, 1894: 148.

1895

  • Berenson, Bernard. Lorenzo Lotto: An Essay in Constructive Art Criticism. London, 1895: 114.

1901

  • Venturi, Adolfo. Storia dell’arte italiana. 11 vols. Milan, 1901-1940: 7, part 4 (1915):432.

  • Berenson, Bernard. Lorenzo Lotto: An Essay in Constructive Art Criticism. Rev. ed. London, 1901: 89, repro.

1907

  • Venturi, Lionello. Le origini della pittura veneziana 1300-1500. Venice, 1907: 247.

1923

  • Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 17(1935): 303, fig. 183, as by Giovanni Bellini.

1927

  • Hadeln, Detlev von. “Two Portraits by Giovanni Bellini.” The Burlington Magazine 51 (July 1927): 7, as by Giovanni Bellini.

1930

  • Gronau, Georg. Giovanni Bellini. New York, 1930: 205, pl. 71, as by Giovanni Bellini.

1931

  • Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931: pl. 286, as by Antonello da Messina.

1933

  • Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. Translated by Countess Vanden Heuvel and Charles Marriott. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 2:pl.381, as by Antonello da Messina.

  • Lauts, Johann. ”Antonello da Messina.” Jahrbuch der Kunsthistorischen Sammlung in Wien n.s. 7 (1933): 75, as by Filippo Mazzola.

1935

  • Dussler, Luitpold. Giovanni Bellini. Frankfurt, 1935: 157.

1937

  • Gamba, Carlo. Giovanni Bellini. Milan, 1937: 84-85, repro., as by Giovanni Bellini.

1938

  • Gamba, Carlo. Giovanni Bellini. Translated by Jean Chuzeville. Paris, 1938: 77, 91, repro, as by Giovanni Bellini.

1939

  • Coletti, Luigi. “Lotto e Melozzo.” Le arti 1 (1939): 351-352, as by Lorenzo Lotto.

1941

  • Preliminary Catalogue of Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1941: 21-22, no. 448, as Portrait of a Senator by Giovanni Bellini.

1942

  • Book of Illustrations. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 248, repro. 70, as Portrait of a Senator by Giovanni Bellini.

1949

  • Dussler, Luitpold. Giovanni Bellini. Vienna, 1949: 79.

1953

  • Bottari, Stefano. Antonello da Messina. Milan, 1953: 51.

1957

  • Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Venetian School. 2 vols. London, 1957: 1:36.

1959

  • Paintings and Sculpture from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1959: 138, repro., as Portrait of a Senator by Giovanni Bellini.

1962

  • Heinemann, Fritz. Giovanni Bellini e i belliniani. 2 vols. Venice, 1962: 1:274; 2:pl.482.

1965

  • Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 136, as Portrait of a Senator.

1967

  • Mandel, Gabriel, and Leonardo Sciascia. L’opera completa di Antonello da Messina. Milan, 1967: 100.

1968

  • National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 124, repro., as Portrait of a Senator.

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: Italian Schools, XV-XVI Century. London, 1968: 49-50, fig. 117.

1972

  • Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 210.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 368, repro., as Portrait of a Senator.

1979

  • Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:536-537; 2:pl. 373, as Portrait of a Senator.

1981

  • Sricchia Santoro, Fiorella, ed. Antonello da Messina. Exh. cat. Museo Regionale, Messina, and Università di Studi di Catania, 1981: 206, pl. 50.

1982

  • Steer, John. Alvise Vivarini: His Art and Influence. Cambridge, 1982: 58, 147, 167-168, 188, cat. 41, pl. 35.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 426, repro., as Portrait of a Senator.

2003

  • Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 679-682, color repro.

2011

  • Boskovits, Miklós, ed. The Alana Collection, Newark, Delaware, USA. Vol. II: Italian Paintings and Sculptures from the Fourteenth to Sixteenth Century. Florence, 2011: 219.

2016

  • Gelao, Clara, Franca Lugato, and Giovanni Valagussa, eds. I Vivarini: Lo splendore della pittura tra Gotico e Rinascimento. Exh. cat. Palazzo Sarcinelli, Conegliano, 2016: 152.

2017

  • Serres, Karen. "Duveen's Italian framemaker, Ferruccio Vannoni." The Burlington Magazine 159, no. 1370 (May 2017): 373 n. 41.

2021

  • Dal Pozzolo, Enrico Maria. Lorenzo Lotto: Catalogo generale dei dipinti. Milan, 2021: 507, cat. V.152, repro.

2023

  • Müller, Rebecca. Die Vivarini: Bildproduktion in Venedig 1440 bis 1505. Regensburg, 2023: 343 n. 168, 401.

Wikidata ID

Q20174679

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