Portrait of a Gentleman
1550 - 1555. Oil on panel.Room 049
Michel Hochmann identified the painting in the Capodimonte as the ‘Quadretto corniciato di pero tinto con un ritratto di un giovane, in pietra di Genova, di mano del medesimo [Daniele’] refered to in the 1600 inventory of the possessions of the antiquarian Fulvio Orsini (1529–1600). The artist referred to is Daniele Ricciarelli, known as Daniele da Volterra, and the attribution of the work seems secure given the connections between Orsini and Volterra, both of whom were closely linked to the Farnese family. In addition, the attributions in the inventory followed those of Fulvio Orsini himself. It is also likely that Orsini may have acquired a considerable number of the paintings that remained in Volterra’s workshop on his death, which would explain the large number of works by the artist (twelve) that Orsini owned and the fact that many of them are unfinished. This would explain why Orsini did not know the name of the sitter, as he did not commission the portrait. What seems clear is that the Prado and Capodimonte paintings were executed by the same artist and that the sitter is the same in both cases. Defining the purpose of the Capodimonte painting is less easy. It has been noted that it is unfinished and this is certainly true, but the lack of finish is selective with the face highly detailed and the clothing barely sketched in.This fact, together with the choice of the smaller, bust-length format, suggested that it is a ‘ricordo’ produced to show to potential clients for portraits; hence the attention to the face, which is essential in any portrait, and the fact that Volterra kept it in his studio. As such it would be similar to the Portrait of Pope Clement VII by Sebastiano del Piombo, also in the Capodimonte Museum (inv. Q141) which was as well in the Farnese collection and which may have been owned by Fulvio Orsini. In both cases these are ‘ricordi’ made on slate that remained in the studios of their respective creators until their death. With regard to the present two paintings, it is not known whether the Prado work is the first version (which is more likely given the lack of other similar ones) or whether it was based on the ‘ricordo’ in Naples. Certain similarities with the David and Goliath in the Louvre, also painted on slate around 1555, suggest a comparable dating for these two portraits. The lack of other known portraits by Volterra makes it difficult to identify his models in this genre, as the evident influence of Michelangelo in the rest of his oeuvre is not viable here.The Prado painting reveals the influence of two of the principal portraitists active in Rome when Volterra arrived in that city in 1535: Jacopino del Conte (c. 1515–1598) and above all Sebastiano del Piombo (1485–1547).Volterra would have learned the technique of painting on slate from Piombo and his manner of composing portraits, locating the halflength model before a dark background and making use of strong contrasts of light and shade, particularly in the face, in order to emphasise the figure’s volume.This acquires a sense of threedimensionality similar to that of his fresco painting and reveals his interest in sculpture. Nothing certain can be stated with regard to the sitter’s identity other than that he is a nobleman, evident in the large toothed sword on which he rests his left arm, and someone with intellectual interests, as indicated by the presence of the book. (Falomir Faus, M.: El retrato del Renacimiento, Museo Nacional del Prado, 2008, p. 499)
