Nicolò Zen (1515-1565)
Titian (Pieve di Cadore 1488/90 - Venice 1576)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1560 - 1565
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1257 x 968 mm (49 1/2 x 38 1/8 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257086
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Nicolò Zen (1515-1565) by Titian (Pieve di Cadore 1488/90 - Venice 1576), 1560-65, inscribed on the back of the canvas: CA ZORZI. A three-quarter-length portrait of Nicolò Zen, standing and turned to proper left, wearing the ermine-lined maroon velvet robes and red damask stole of a Venetian senator, placing the proper right hand at the base of the stole, and holding in the proper left hand a pair of gloves, the hand resting on a marble-topped table with an opened letter beside it. Nicolò Zen, son of Caterino Zen and Gabriella Querini, was born into an illustrious patrician family, whose members were prominent players in Venetian social and political life. He was a historian, mathematician, and architect, but also held a great many public roles in Venice. The portrait was bought by William Bankes in Bologna from Marescalchi collection as an unknown senator of the Savorgnan family, its previous owners, but the discovery of an early copy of the head, inscribed Nicolò Zen, now in the Museum of Bassano del Grappa, made it possible to identify this as the lost portrait of ' M. Niccolò Zono', mentioned by Vasari in 1567 as among Titian's later portraits.
Provenance
Painted for Nicolò Zen; his son, Caterino Zen (1544–1532) who died with no male issue; passes directly to his grandson, Costantino Zorzi (1584–1642), son of Lucrezia Zorzi; thence to his daughter, Gabriella Zorzi (m. Taddeo Morosini); thence to their son, Girolamo Morosini (1648–1690); thence to his daughter Lucrezia, who marries Francesco Savorgnan (b.1667); their son, Giancarlo (1695–1732); his son, Conte Marchese Antonio Savorgnan del Torre (1744–1810); thence to his niece, Maria Savorgnan, daughter of Girolamo, and who married Antonius Mor (a jeweller); sold to the lawyer, Galeazzi, who in turn sold it to Ferdinando Marescalchi (1754–1816) in 1812 (Palazzo Marescalchi, Bologna); bought by William Bankes in 1820 from the Marescalchi executors (note in the Dorset RO: 'The Elder Schiavone [probably Natale Schiavone (1777–1858)] (whom I consider the best colourist now in Venice) tells me that he made, and still has somewhere in his possession, a small sketch or copy of the Marquis of Savorgnan by Titian which is now at Kingston Lacy. It was at the time he copied it in the choice collection of the Avvocato Galeazzi, who sold it with three other pictures (of which one was the Judgement of Solomon by Giorgione, he cannot call to mind the remaining time) to the Conte Marescalchi for 10,000 Francs'.
Credit line
Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (National Trust)
Marks and inscriptions
CA ZORCI (on the back of the canvas, how)
Makers and roles
Titian (Pieve di Cadore 1488/90 - Venice 1576), artist
Exhibition history
In Trust for the Nation, National Gallery, London, 1995 - 1996, no.45 The Treasure Houses of Britain, National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA, 1985 - 1986, no.498 The Genius of Venice 1500-1600, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 1983 - 1984, no.122
References
Preti Hamard 1995 Monica Preti Hamard, ' La qauderia de Ferdinando Marescalchi (1753 - 1816) attraverso il suo carteggio inedito con Francesco Rosapina', Atti e memorie del'Accademia Clementina, Bolgona, nos. 33/4, 1995, pp.181-200 Sponza 1999 S. Sponza, ‘Un dipinto di Tiziano riconosciuto: il ritratto di Nicolò Zono a Kingston Lacy’, in Pittura Veneziana dal quattrocento al Settecento, Venice, 1999, pp.57–62. Pedrocco 2001 Filippo Pedrocco, Titian: The Complete Paintings, London, 2001, p.190, illus.p.190, no.135 Titian, David Jaffé (ed.), National Gallery, 2003 Pinessi 2011: Orietta Pinessi, Nicolò Zen tra Tiziano e Tintoretto storia di un riconoscimento, Treviolo 2011
