Italian, Lombardy or Venice, late 15th/ early 16th century

André Lambert (1884-1967), Paris;

Jean-Louis Dupré

This commanding profile of a nobleman recalls the great tradition of relief portraiture in late Renaissance Italy and evokes the spirit of humanism. The present portrait, carved with great flair and attention for detail, portrays a nobleman with an open collar and fitted hat.

The profile portrait became a popular a genre for private sculpture commissions from merchants, bankers, and nobility in quattrocento Italy to adorn their palaces or funerary monuments. While the identity of the man depicted cannot be ascertained due to the lack of an inscription, his dress suggests he is a Venetian nobleman. A portrait of the Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini by Vittore Belliano (active 1507-1529) in the Musée Condé, Chantilly, demonstrates a similar short sleeved garment with wide pleats. A 15th-century medal portrait of Lorenzo Giustiniani, a member of one of the most influential families in the Venetian patriciate, demonstrates the same type of hat covering his ears and hair (Pollard, op. cit., no. 185).

The sculptor succeeded in producing a naturalistic portrait with noticeable psychological depth. The sitter shows sign of ageing, including fine wrinkles and slightly drooping cheeks. His gaze is authoritative and focused. This naturalism compares to the work of Bendetto da Maiano (1442-1497), and in particular to the marble bust of Pietro Mellini made in 1474, in the Bargello Museum, Florence. Another stylistic comparison can be made to the unattributed portrait of Federico da Montefeltro illustrated in Ritratti di Imperatori e profili all’antica Scultura del Quattrocento nel Museo Stefano Bardini (Nesi, op. cit., fig.77).

RELATED LITERATURE

F. Caglioti, ‘Fifteenth-Century Reliefs of Ancient Emperors and Empresses in Florence: Production and Collecting’, Studies in the History of Art, 70, 2008, pp.66–109; A. Nesi, Ritratti di Imperatori e profili all’antica Scultura del Quattrocento nel Museo Stefano Bardini, Firenze, 2012, fig.77; J. G. Pollard, Renaissance Medals, Volume One, Italy, Oxford, 2007, pp.204-205, no.185; D. Carl, Benedetto da Maiano, A Florentine Sculptor at the Threshold of the High Renaissance, Regensburg, 2006, fig. 70