JAN VAN DER STRAET, KNOWN AS GIOVANNI STRADANO, OR STRADANUS | Portrait of Alessandro Allori (1535–1607)

Mevr. M. van Gelder, Brussels, by 1934;
Anonymous sale, London, Christie's, 14 May 1971, lot 18 (as Alessandro Allori) for £950 to O. Poggi;
With Galleria Vangelisti, Lucca, by 1972.

Amsterdam, Stedelijk Museum, Italiaansch Kinst in Nederlandsch Bezit, 1 July – 1 October 1934, no. 1 (lent by Mevr. M. van Gelder).

Stedelijk Museum, Italiaansch Kinst in Nederlandsch Bezit, exh. cat., Amsterdam 1934, p. 42, cat. no. 1 (as Alessandro Allori, Portrait of a humanist);
R. van Marle, 'La pittura all'esposizione d'arte antica italiana di Amsterdam', in Bollettino d'arte, III, 1935, p. 312 (as Allori, Portrait of a humanist);
M.P. Mannini et al., in Il paesaggio nella pittura fra Cinque e Seicento a Firenze, Poggibonsi 1980, pp. 95 and 97, note 9, reproduced p. 98 (as Workshop of Allori, Portrait of a historian);
S. Lecchini Giovannoni, Alessandro Allori, Turin 1991, pp. 307–08, cat. no. 197, reproduced pl. 431 (proposing an attribution to Stradanus);
A. Baroni Vannucci, Jan van der Straet detto Giovanni Stradano, Flandrus pictor et inventor, Milan 1997, p. 154, cat. no. 46, reproduced.

The panel is cradled, flat and stable. The paint surface is relatively clean and the varnish very discoloured. There are old discoloured retouchings scattered throughout, most notably in the sitter's cloak and the sky. There are a few surface cracks starting along the upper margin, the longest of which measures approx 25cm, and there is a horizontal scratch with associated retouching in the upper right corner approx 12cm long. There are a handful of scattered woodworm holes. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals a thick and opaque varnish, which makes it difficult to discern the aforementioned older retouchings but the newer campaign is revealed: in the background upper right, a few small spots in his nose, cheek and beard, scattered in the sky, and a few in his cloak. In overall, fairly good condition. Offered in a carved and gilt wood frame with decorative punching.
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We are grateful to Dott.ssa Alessandra Baroni Vannucci for re-confirming the attribution of this portrait of Alessandro Allori to his close friend and colleague Johannes Stradanus on inspection of images, and for noting its similarity to the portraits by Stradanus of the Capponi family that date to the early 1570s.¹ As with those paintings, she notes the visible Flemish style here in the pose, as well as the attention to the details and naturalism of the sitter's features. Lecchini Giovannoni (see Literature) identifies the villa visible through the window as a house once owned by Allori near Peretola in northern Florence.

1 See Baroni Vannucci 1997, pp. 148–49, cat. nos 40 and 41, reproduced.