Venetian School, circa 1600

The painting has an old relining. The varnish has oxidised which makes the dark tones of the painting and the details of the figure's armour and outfit hard to make out though the condition appears good overall. The varnish is very patchy with matt areas and very shiny areas. The painting would benefit from a professional clean and a new varnish. There is an old seam in the canvas that is visible to the naked eye and runs the length of the painting 10 inches from the left edge. 19 ½ inches from the upper edge there is another visible seam that runs from the left edge of the canvas to the aforementioned horizontal fold line. Both have some retouchings along them. There is a visible 1 by 1 cm patch of restoration just above the hilt of the man's sword by his right breast. Inspection under ultra violet light reveals some scattered retouchings throughout and some signs of an earlier campaign of restoration - the details of which are hard to make out due to the patchy varnish. There is an area of loss in the man's right cuff and other more minor, but stable, paint losses throughout, particularly in the collar. Most are only visible on close inspection.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The painting is conceived in the tradition of Jacopo Tintoretto's full-length portraits, particularly in the inclusion of the balustrade to the right which is a development of the more usual window used in the sixteenth century. The dress of the sitter, however, points to a later dating, circa 1600. Tintoretto and his contemporaries often placed views in the backgrounds of their portraits and sometimes within these included sea battles, if the sitter was an admiral, for example. The present view of a Venetian canal with gondolas appears to be a particularly early view of la Serenissima.¹

1. Compare, for example, Tintoretto's Portrait of a Collector, now in a private collection, in which the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome can be seen through the window; see P. Rossi, Jacopo Tintoretto, I Ritratti, Venice 1976, p. 133, reproduced fig. 117.