{"id":880,"date":"2011-06-09T10:28:57","date_gmt":"2011-06-09T14:28:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.vassar.edu\/rosso2\/"},"modified":"2012-11-07T09:48:05","modified_gmt":"2012-11-07T14:48:05","slug":"p-21","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/paintings\/p-21\/","title":{"rendered":"P.21 Portrait of a Seated Young Man"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_1238\" style=\"width: 229px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.21a-Naples-Portrait-color.jpg\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-1238\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1238 \" src=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.21a-Naples-Portrait-color-219x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"219\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.21a-Naples-Portrait-color-219x300.jpg 219w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.21a-Naples-Portrait-color-109x150.jpg 109w, https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.21a-Naples-Portrait-color-749x1024.jpg 749w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 219px) 100vw, 219px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-1238\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">P.21 Portrait of a Seated Young Man<\/p><\/div>\n<p>c.1530<\/p>\n<p>Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, no. Q 112.<\/p>\n<p>Panel, 120 x 86.<a href=\"#endref1\"><sup>1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.21a-Naples-Portrait-color.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Fig.P.21a<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.21b-Naples-portrait-bw.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Fig.P.21b<\/a> bw<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.21c-Madonna.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Fig.P.21c<\/a> Madonna<\/p>\n<p>Prior to its restoration by Leonetto Tintori in 1957, the entire background of the portrait was painted out, as well as the legs of the figure which gave it an incomprehensible relationship to the table (see Anderson photograph no. 5564).\u00a0 With the removal of all repaint, the picture looks as though it may never have been finished, except for the face of the sitter and that part of the rug covering the table that is in the center of the bottom of the painting.\u00a0 The upper right corner with the Flemish tapestry and the gilt and red pomegranate that ornaments the canopy of the bed seems completed.\u00a0 At the left the doorway with the herm is fully described.\u00a0 But the figure\u2019s garment looks unfinished as does the whole lower right section of the painting beneath the figure\u2019s left arm.\u00a0 In addition to its apparently unfinished parts certain areas look as though they have been scraped: the upper left corner, the hat, and the right arm and hand, both legs, and the section to the left of the figure\u2019s left leg.\u00a0 It is impossible to tell what the sitter holds in his right hand, but it may be gloves.\u00a0 Areas of paint are also missing from the hanging blue drapery and from the rumpled dark orange drapery seen through the doorway at the left. From a photograph taken in 1957 after the removal of the repainting it is clear that the original surface is missing in the right eye, the left cheek, most of the right hand, and in the hair and hat.<a href=\"#endref2\"><sup>2<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>In spite of its apparently unfinished state and abraded condition the picture has a tonal unity of darkness from which emerge highlighted areas very much recalling Rosso\u2019s pictures from the time of the <em>Sposalizio<\/em> of 1523 on. \u00a0The portrait seems to be painted on a dark ground like the <em>Christ in Glory<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/paintings\/p-20\">P.20<\/a>).\u00a0 Close observation of the background and of the whole right edge of the picture reveals the following details: a tapestry, showing two men on horseback with a lance(?) and a horn, hangs on the back wall and appears to be draped to the right of the door; part of this tapestry can be seen between the sitter\u2019s body and left arm and below this arm as well.\u00a0 The style of the tapestry indicates that it is Flemish and of the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century.\u00a0 Just above the sitter\u2019s left shoulder and in front of the tapestry is a small picture of the <em>Madonna and Child<\/em> with apparently undecorated open shutters (see Molajoli, 1959 below). There appear to be striations on the drapery of the Virgin in this painting suggesting that it is Byzantine.\u00a0 However, the shoulder of the sitter blocks from view whatever this small tabernacle is standing on.\u00a0 At the upper right is the dark maroon and gray-green striped canopy of a bed with a finial at the corner of a \u201cgold\u201d pomegranate split open to show dark red seeds.\u00a0 Immediately to the right of the <em>Madonna and Child<\/em> a narrow strip of this canopy hangs down and is again visible beneath the sitter\u2019s left arm to the right of the tapestry.\u00a0 To the right of the figure\u2019s left arm there is an oblique view into a bed showing a few white pillows.\u00a0 The rug on the table goes to the right edge of the picture where it is unfinished and dark.\u00a0 Here the sitter\u2019s rumpled garment hangs over the table.\u00a0 What cannot be read is what appears above this corner (more bed clothes?).\u00a0 At the left of the rug the frame of the door in the background can be seen at the very bottom of the picture between the sitter\u2019s legs.\u00a0 Through the door is visible what appears to be another canopy hanging above rumpled drapery.\u00a0 The sitter\u2019s face is very pale with slightly pink cheeks and chin; his lips are fairly bright red orange.\u00a0 His collar and shirt front are white.\u00a0 His jacket is brownish but there are indications that it would have been finished as gray with suggestions of blue and pink.\u00a0 His sash is brown.\u00a0 The tapestry shows very subdued tones of wine red, green, and orange-brown.\u00a0 At the left the architecture and herm are brick red.\u00a0 The canopy beyond the door is dark blue green; the rumpled drapery is dark orange-red.\u00a0 The rug is very light blue with red, orange-brown, white, and small areas of yellow tan.<\/p>\n<p>PROVENANCE: Inventory of around 1680 of the pictures in the Palazzo del Giardino in Parma (see Campori, 1870, 232; Bertini, 1987, 183, 235, 245-246): ASP, Casa e Corte Farnesina, s. VIII, b. 54. \u201cSesta camera de Ritratti,\u201d f. 31v, no. 244. \u201cUn quadro alto braccia due, oncie una, e meza, largo braccia uno, e oncie otto in tavola.\u00a0 Un ritratto di un giovane, con beretta nera in capo, presso un tavolino coperto in un panno turchesco, tiene la sinistra sul fianco, e con la destra all\u2019estremit\u00e0 di una banda, che li cinge bianca, del Parmiggiano n. 228.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The last part of this description indicates that the picture had already c. 1680 been repainted to appear as it did prior to the cleaning of 1957.<\/p>\n<p>Ciardi and Mugnaini, 1991, 120, stated that the Emilian provenance of the portrait is also attested by two seals on the back of the panel with the Farnese arms, one in brown wax, the other on paper.<\/p>\n<p>It is possible that the portrait is the following picture mentioned in the inventory of the possessions of Fulvio Orsini made before he died on 14 June 1600: \u201cQuadro corniciato di noce, col ritratto d\u2019una giouane che siede sopra una tavola, del Rosso \u00ad\u00ad\u00ad\u00ad_____24 [scudi]\u201d (Nolhac, 1884, 431).\u00a0 Fulvio Orsini\u2019s collection of pictures in Rome was left to his uncle Cardinal Odoardo Farnese and eventually became part of the Farnese Collection, first in Rome and then in Parma, that finally passed to the Naples museum.\u00a0 Fulvio was also the secretary and nephew of Cardinal Ranuccio Farnese.\u00a0 The Orsini inventory states that the sitter is \u201cuna giouane,\u201d while the Naples portrait shows a young man.\u00a0 Assuming that in its publication by Nolhac \u201cuna\u201d is not a faulty transcription from the manuscript inventory, which is itself a copy, it does seem strange that a young woman in a portrait of the sixteenth century would be shown seated upon a table (\u201csiede sopra una tavola\u201d).\u00a0 It is even unusual to show a man in such a pose, and, in fact, it may be unprecedented in the Naples portrait.\u00a0 But a young woman so informally posed is most unlikely.\u00a0 It is therefore possible that the word \u201cuna\u201d is a mistake in the copy of the manuscript of the inventory and hence that the portrait in Naples is the one by Rosso mentioned in the inventory of Fulvio Orsini\u2019s possessions at the end of the sixteenth century.<\/p>\n<p>Inventory of 1653 of pictures in the Palazzo Farnese in Rome. ASP, Raccolta manoscritti, n. 86. Quadri di Palazzo Farnese di Roma Del 1653, f. 328, no. 330 (Bertini, 1987, 183, 207, 215): \u201cUn quadro in tavola cornice di noce intagliata con il retratto d\u2019un giovine vicino ad un tavolino con suo tappeto mano il Titiano.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Inventory of 1708 of the \u201cGalleria dei quadri\u201d in Parma.\u00a0 ASP, Casa e Corte Farnesiane, s. VIII, b. 54, fasc. 4 (Campori, 1870, 459-479; Bertini, 1987, 25, n. 1, 183): \u201cQuadro in tavola con cornice dorata alto br.a due, onc.e una, e mezza, largo br.a uno, onc.e otto [115.8 x 90.9 cm.].\u00a0 Ritratto di giovane con beretta sera in capo presso d\u2019un tavolino coperto di panno turchesco con la sinistra sul fianco, e con la destra tiene l\u2019estrimit\u00e0 di una cinta.\u00a0 Del Parmigianino n. 228.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>LITERATURE:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>De Rinaldis, Aldo, <em>Pinacoteca del Museo Nazionale di Napoli<\/em>, Naples, 1911, 279-280, as Parmigianino.<\/p>\n<p>De Rinaldis, Aldo, [same title, place], 1928, 223, as Parmigianino.<\/p>\n<p>Before the portrait was cleaned its traditional attribution to Parmigianino was accepted by Fr\u00f6hlich-Bum, 1921, 38; Venturi, IX, 2, 1926, 684, 686, Fig. 557.<\/p>\n<p>Giovanni Copertini, <em>Il Parmigianino<\/em>, Parma, 1932, I, 203.<\/p>\n<p>Berenson, 1932, 434.<\/p>\n<p>Roberto Longhi, \u201cAmpliamenti nell\u2019officina ferrarese,\u201d Supplement to <em>La Critica d\u2019Arte<\/em>, IV, 1940, 37, n. 2, comments that \u201ctocca al Rosso Fiorentino\u201d; this was before the picture was cleaned.<\/p>\n<p>Carlo Gamba, \u201cCentenari: Il Parmigianino,\u201d <em>Emporium<\/em>, Sept., 1940, 118, as justly taken from Parmigianino and given to Rosso.<\/p>\n<p>Becherucci, 1944, 28, as Rosso around 1523.<\/p>\n<p>Quintavalle, 1948, 203, as Rosso.<\/p>\n<p>Freedberg, 1950, 230, as not altogether improbably by Rosso.<\/p>\n<p>Barocchi, 1950, 55-56, 246, as Rosso around 1523.<\/p>\n<p>Longhi, 1951, 59 (1976, 99), as Rosso.<\/p>\n<p>Hartt, 1952, 64-65, as possibly by Rosso.<\/p>\n<p>Bologna and Causa, 1952, 5, no. 4, as Rosso (by this time the upper right corner of the picture had been cleaned revealing the pomegranate and the striped material beneath it).<\/p>\n<p>Baldini, <em>in Mostra del Pontormo<\/em>, 1956, 135-136, no. 168, as Rosso, around 1523.<\/p>\n<p>Sanminiatelli, 1956, 241, as Rosso, late in his Roman period.<\/p>\n<p>Shearman, 1957, II, 215, no. 7, as not convincingly Florentine, nor by Rosso.<\/p>\n<p>Molajoli, 1958, 23, 39, Fig. 27, as Rosso, and as restored in 1957.<\/p>\n<p>Barocchi, 1958, 238, as Rosso, from his Roman or Aretine period [1528-1529], the latter suggestion because of its similarity to the picture in Citt\u00e0 di Castello.<\/p>\n<p>Molajoli, 1959, text to Pl. VII, as Rosso around 1523 in Florence; he points out in the background the \u201carcaico arazzo a trofei\u201d and the \u201ctritichetto con la Madonna.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><em>IV Mostra di Restauri<\/em>, exh. cat., Naples, 1960, 57-58, no. 16, Pls. 70-71, gives an account of its restoration by Leonetto Tintori in 1957.<\/p>\n<p>Molajoli, 1961, 41, Fig. 16, as by Rosso.<\/p>\n<p>N. di R., \u201cMusei e Pinacoteche,\u201d <em>Acropoli<\/em>, II, 1961-1962, 76, Fig. 3, as Rosso, and as showing in the background \u201cl\u2019interno di una signorile casa fiorentina.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>John Shearman, \u201cBronzino,\u201d (review of Andrea Emiliani, <em>Il Bronzino<\/em>), <em>BM<\/em>, CV, 1963, 415, as Rosso, around 1525, and the basis of Bronzino\u2019s <em>Ugolino Martelli<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Carroll, 1964 (1976), I, Bk. I, 203, Bk. II, 140-144, P. 22, II, Bk. III, Fig. 90, as done in Arezzo in 1529.<\/p>\n<p>Borea, 1965, Color Pl. XVI, as Rosso, and as perhaps a portrait of Parmigianino, to whom Rosso was close in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>Freedberg, 1966, 583, Pl. 76, as done around 1528.<\/p>\n<p>Carroll, 1966, 169, as Rosso around 1529.<\/p>\n<p>Shearman, 1966, 171, n. 35, as Rosso in his Roman period.<\/p>\n<p>Smyth, 1971, 4, 80, as a remote ancestor of Bronzino\u2019s Chatworth drawing for his <em>Man with a Lute<\/em> in the Uffizi.<\/p>\n<p>B\u00e9guin, in <em>EdF<\/em>, 1972, 175, as Rosso around 1522-1523.<\/p>\n<p>Mills, 1978, 27, Fig. 26, shows a \u201csmall pattern Holbein\u201d carpet.<\/p>\n<p>Luciano Bellosi, <em>in Primato del disegno<\/em>, 1980, 42, as Rosso.<\/p>\n<p><em>Le collezioni del Museo di Capodimonte<\/em>, Milan, 1982, 55, as Rosso.<\/p>\n<p>Fomez, 1982, with Figs., as Rosso, and done in France between 1537 and 1540, around the same time as the Louvre <em>Piet\u00e0<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>Darragon, 1983, 75, Fig. 57, as around 1529.<\/p>\n<p>Berenson, 1983, 195, Pl. 1464.<\/p>\n<p>Wilmes, 1985, 153, 154-159, Fig. 34, as Rosso\u2019s latest portrait, done in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>Bertini, 1987, 183, no. 283, Color Pl., 215, as Rosso, no. 330 (Titian), 246, no. 244 (Parmigianino).<\/p>\n<p>Carroll, 1987, 175, n. 8, under 57, as by Rosso and most similar to his<em> Mars and Venus<\/em> drawing of 1530 [D.42] and hence probably of the same time and also done in Venice.<\/p>\n<p>Ciardi and Mugnaini, 1991, 18, 26, 116, 120-123, with 2 Color Pls.<\/p>\n<p>Philippe Costamagna, \u201cFrancesco Salviati (1510-1563), peintre et dessinateur: une nouvelle attribution pour le <em>Luthiste<\/em> du muse\u00e9 Jacquemart-Andr\u00e9,\u201d <em>Revue du Louvre<\/em>, 5-6, 1991, 34, and n. 27, Fig. 9, as by Rosso and painted in Rome.<\/p>\n<p>Franklin, 1994, 138, 212, 215-216, 224-227, Color Pl. 177, as done in Rome and not necessarily unfinished, the latest of Rosso\u2019s portraits, with parallels in the <em>Portrait of a Man<\/em> in Vienna that he attributes to Parmigianino, and as perhaps belonging to the category of portraits of handsome young men, a popular sub-genre of the period.<\/p>\n<p>Marchetti Letta, 1994, 77, Pl. 103, as generally considered his latest portrait, dated in Rome and in 1529.<\/p>\n<p>Haitovsky, 1994, 119, wrongly as in Washington, the mask above the \u201cfireplace\u201d as standing for old age in contrast to the youth portrayed.<\/p>\n<p>Ciardi, 1994, 70, 71, notes gothic aspects in the tapestry and the \u201cantica\u201d image of the <em>Madonna and Child<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Since Longhi attributed the picture to Rosso in 1940, and especially since it was cleaned in 1957, it has been accepted as Rosso\u2019s by all critics.\u00a0 There has also been a general consensus that it was not done before around 1523, and it has been dated around the time of the <em>Sposalizio<\/em> in S. Lorenzo of that year.\u00a0 The portrait has also been dated in Rosso\u2019s Roman period, and even later, around 1528 or 1529.\u00a0 The elongation of the sitter most recalls that of the figures in Rosso\u2019s picture of 1529-1530 in Citt\u00e0 di Castello (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.20a-Christ-in-Glory-color.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Fig.P.20a<\/a>), and that of the Virgin in his <em>Allegory of the Immaculate Conception<\/em> of about the same date in St. Petersburg (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-39-allegory-of-the-immaculate-conception\">D.39<\/a>).\u00a0 In this same respect he also brings to mind the <em>Standing Apostle<\/em> of around 1529 in the British Museum (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-36-standing-apostle\/\">D.36<\/a>).\u00a0 The general darkness of the portrait, apparently painted on a dark ground, and the raking light that touches certain salient features are very similar to these aspects of the paintings in Borgo Sansepolcro (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.19a-Piet\u00e0-Sansepolcro-color.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Fig.P.19a<\/a>) and Citt\u00e0 di Castello.\u00a0 In the former the hand supporting the Virgin in the very center of the picture, with its long fingers, the wide separation of two of them, and the bend of the little finger, is almost identical to the left hand of the young man in Naples.\u00a0 The many short parallel folds of his right sleeve are very similar to those of the Virgin\u2019s right sleeve in the <em>Christ in Glory<\/em>.\u00a0 One might also point out how the red drapery falling down and projecting forward beneath the Magdalen is similar to what can be seen of the drapery in the lower right corner of the portrait.\u00a0 In spite of its condition the multiplicity of beautiful details and the relationship of them to the light and shadow in the portrait are more like what appears in these two altarpieces than in any other paintings by Rosso.\u00a0 One is also reminded of the infinite subtlety in the relationship of detail and chiaroscuro in Rosso\u2019s <em>Madonna della Misericordia<\/em> drawing of 1529 in the Louvre (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-35-madonna-della-misericordia\">D.35<\/a>).\u00a0 If one then compares the portrait with Rosso\u2019s <em>Mars and Venus<\/em> drawing in the Louvre (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-42-mars-and-venus\">D.42<\/a>) that he executed in Venice in the spring or summer of 1530, one can see almost all the same characteristics mentioned above brought together, in the portrait and in that drawing, in a richly described furnished interior.\u00a0 As discussed in the text, such an interior in a portrait is most similar to what appears in a few of Lotto\u2019s portraits, such as the <em>Young Man in his Study<\/em>, in the Accademia in Venice, and in the drawing of a <em>Young Prelate in his Study<\/em>, in the British Museum.\u00a0 All of these correspondences suggest that Rosso\u2019s portrait dates from after his Roman period &#8211; it has little in common with his portrait in Liverpool (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/files\/2011\/06\/P.16a-Man-w.-Helmet-color-.jpg\" target=\"_blank\">Fig.P.16a<\/a>) probably done in that period &#8211; and quite possibly from the short time that he was in Venice. \u00a0The small painted triptych of the Madonna and Child standing before the tapestry background is a Greek icon, making it even more likely that the portrait was made in Venice, where the Byzantine manner was a style of innate prestige.<a href=\"#endref3\"><sup>3<\/sup><\/a>\u00a0 The Turkish carpet also suggests a Venetian origin.<a href=\"#endref4\"><sup>4<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<p>One cannot, however, overlook the possibility that the portrait was done in France.\u00a0 The appearance of the Flemish tapestry in Rosso\u2019s painting could indicate that it was executed outside Italy.\u00a0 In its elegance the portrait bears a certain resemblance to Rosso\u2019s <em>Judith<\/em> of 1530-1531, known from Boyvin\u2019s engraving (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/engravings\/e-7-boyvin-judith\/\" target=\"_blank\">E.7<\/a>).\u00a0 A richly composed interior is also found in Rosso\u2019s <em>Annunciation<\/em> of 1531 or 1532 in the Albertina (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-43-annunciation\">D.43<\/a>), and the elaborate architectural setting, though not an interior one, of his <em>Narcissus<\/em> of the same date (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d-44-copy-narcissus\">D.44<\/a>) might also lead one to see the portrait as from Rosso\u2019s early years in France.\u00a0 The Raphaelesque <em>Portrait of Giovanna d\u2019Aracona<\/em> in the Louvre that Francis I owned could just possibly have influenced Rosso to give his portrait its rich interior background, although Lotto\u2019s art, that Rosso could have seen in Venice just before he left for France, provides a closer model.\u00a0 One could not insist upon a French date for the portrait in Naples, but one should not rule it out altogether as a possibility.<\/p>\n<p>Two other factors might eventually have some meaning in determining a more precise date for the portrait: its possibly unfinished state and its possible provenance.\u00a0 Rosso\u2019s flight from Rome could be considered as a cause of its incompleteness as this sudden departure seems also to have left incomplete Caraglio\u2019s engraving of Rosso\u2019s <em>Battle of the Romans and the Sabines<\/em> (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/engravings\/e-48-caraglio-battle\/\" target=\"_blank\">E.48<\/a>).\u00a0 But the style of the portrait does not support a Roman date.\u00a0 Due to illness he suddenly left Citt\u00e0 di Castello in 1528.\u00a0 Rosso also fled from Arezzo in 1529, leaving the S. Maria delle Lagrime project incomplete, as well as from Borgo Sansepolcro in 1530.\u00a0 He was briefly in Pesaro on his way to Venice.\u00a0 His departure from Venice in 1530 was also possibly rather sudden once he was summoned to France by Francis I.\u00a0 The portrait would not seem to be a very late work so it is unlikely that it was left incomplete by Rosso\u2019s possibly sudden death in 1540, although Fomez in 1982 thought it was done in the last years of his life, around the time of the Louvre <em>Piet\u00e0<\/em>.\u00a0 One could, however, imagine circumstances in France not allowing him to finish this portrait at an earlier date, especially if it was not a royal commission, which nothing about it suggests.\u00a0 Given his comings and goings in Italy between 1527 and 1530 an unfinished portrait in these years would not be unlikely.\u00a0 Nor in France if it was begun in the first year or two of his stay there and then abandoned when he became busy at Fontainebleau.<\/p>\n<p>If the portrait was owned by Fulvio Orsini one might expect that it was of an Orsini and inherited from someone in the family.\u00a0 This could suggest a Roman origin, but again stylistically this does not seem likely.\u00a0 However, the Orsini served both the Venetian Republic and the King of France.\u00a0 A relative of the Orsini without the Orsini name is also possible, perhaps someone with a coat-of-arms that corresponds to the dark maroon and gray-green stripes and the pomegranate in the upper right corner of the picture.\u00a0 It should be pointed out that Rosso knew the Orsini Count of Anguillara during his Roman stay when it would seem he did the series of St. Roch drawings for him (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d13-st-roch-distributing\">D.13<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d14-st-roch-visiting\">D.14<\/a>, <a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/drawings\/d15-angel-of-death-st-roch\">D.15<\/a>). Rosso\u2019s portrait in Liverpool may be of this Count (<a href=\"http:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/catalogues\/paintings\/p-16\">P.16<\/a>).\u00a0 Through him contacts with his relatives elsewhere would have been possible.<\/p>\n<p>On the basis of its style the picture would seem to have been done after Rosso left Rome.\u00a0 The accumulation of stylistic evidence indicates a date in the late 1520s or around 1530.\u00a0 It most resembles Rosso\u2019s <em>Mars and Venus<\/em> drawing done in Venice in 1530.\u00a0 In its use of an interior it also recalls portraits by Lotto.\u00a0 The appearance of a Byzantine image in the background points again to Venice.\u00a0 Until further evidence becomes available, it is reasonable to think of this portrait as having been painted there in the spring or summer of 1530, and left unfinished, if such was the case, because of his sudden departure for France.<a href=\"#endref5\"><sup>5<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n<hr size=\"1\" \/>\n<p><a name=\"endref1\"><\/a><sup>1<\/sup>Molajoli, 1958, 39, no. 112.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"endref2\"><\/a><sup>2<\/sup> See G. Bertini, <em>IV Mostra di Restauri<\/em>, exh. cat., Naples, 1960, no. 16, Pls. 70 and 71.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"endref3\"><\/a><sup>3<\/sup> On the interest in Byzantine art in Venice, see Rona Goffen, \u201cIcon and Vision: Giovanni Bellini\u2019s Half-Length Madonnas,\u201d <em>A.B.<\/em>, LVII, 4, Dec., 1975, 487-488.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"endref4\"><\/a><sup>4<\/sup> See the many Venetian paintings with Turkish carpets in Mills, 1983.<\/p>\n<p><a name=\"endref5\"><\/a><sup>5<\/sup> The suggestion by Shearman in 1963 that Rosso\u2019s portrait was influential on Bronzino\u2019s <em>Ugolino Martelli<\/em> and Smyth\u2019s thought that it is a rather remote ancestor of Bronzino\u2019s <em>Man with a Lute<\/em> may rather reflect the common Venetian sources of all these portraits.\u00a0 Smyth, 1971, 80-83, actually does point out the independent sources of Bronzino\u2019s portraits in Venetian portraiture.\u00a0 This is seconded by Iris Cheney in her review of Smyth\u2019s book, <em>Master Drawings<\/em>, XI, 2, 1973, 169-170.\u00a0 It, does, of course, have to be acknowledged that Venetian sources could also have reached Rosso in Florence.\u00a0 They could have been available to him in Rome where Costamagna and Franklin thought Rosso\u2019s Naples portrait was painted.\u00a0 But from the evidence within Rosso\u2019s own <em>oeuvre<\/em> \u2013 the <em>Mars and Venus<\/em> specifically \u2013 a Venetian date still seems most reasonable to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>c.1530 Naples, Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, no. Q 112. Panel, 120 x 86.1 Fig.P.21a Fig.P.21b bw Fig.P.21c Madonna Prior to its restoration by Leonetto Tintori in 1957, the entire background of the portrait was painted out, as well as the legs of the figure which gave it an incomprehensible relationship to the table (see Anderson [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"parent":814,"menu_order":21,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-880","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/880","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/880\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7553,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/880\/revisions\/7553"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/814"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.vassar.edu\/rosso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}