Mattia Bortoloni

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. It seems as if this work has always been shown behind glass, which would certainly account for the remarkable condition. There are two or three spots of what appear to be retouching in the blue color of the figure's cloak beneath the red collar in the lower right. In the index finger in the lower left, there is a slight disturbance to the linen and paint layer that could be carefully corrected, but all efforts should be made to retain the untouched integrity of the work if restoration is to be considered.
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An extravagant yet versatile artist, Mattia Bortoloni trained under the Veronese painter Antonio Balestra and his works were as sought after in his own lifetime as those of his contemporary, Giambattista Tiepolo, completing such impressive commissions as the Allegory of Triumph decorating the ceiling of the Ca' Rezzonico, Venice.  This beautifully preserved Portrait of an Astronomer displays marked parallels with another 'character head' by Bortoloni, a Young Mathematician, now in a private collection.¹  The models hold the same pose; turned to face the viewer over the left shoulder; a compass clasped in the right hand, resting on a page of diagrams; and the physiognomy of both sitters, despite the difference in age, bears the distinctive mark of the artist, with the broad, undulated forehead, high cheekbones and narrow mouth.  The Young Mathematician belongs to a series of fifty or so such 'character heads', painted in Venice between the 17th and early 18th centuries by various artists from the Luganese guild of painters.²  Each of these figurative models is shown bust-length, the figure often twisted, filling the composition to create strong diagonal forms and all are identical in dimension and frame.  The contributions to the group spanned two generations of painters, including the likes of Giambattista Pittoni, Sebastiano Ricci, Giambattista Piazzetta, Antonio Pellegrini and Giambattista Tieopolo.³  Though it is unknown who commissioned it, the collection later hung in its entirety in the Castello Visconti at Somma Lombardo in the province of Varesotto until the 20th century.

This work likely dates to the same period as Bortoloni's Young Mathematician, painted between 1722 and 1725, retaining the youthful style of his recently-completed fresco in the Villa Cornaro in Piombino Dese.⁴

We are grateful to Dott. Fabrizio Malachin for endorsing the attribution to Bortoloni on the basis of photographs.

1.  R. Mangili, in F. Malachin and A. Vedova (eds.), Bortoloni, Piazzetta, Tiepolo, il '700 Veneto, exhibition catalogue, Rovigo 2010, pp. 160-161, cat. no. 65, reproduced.
2.  Ibid.
3.  Ibid.,pp. 160-167 and 227-230, cat. nos. 65-70, all reproduced.
4.  Ibid.