Cardinal Camillo Massimi (1620-1677)
Diego Velázquez (Seville 1599 - Madrid 1660)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1649 - 1650
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
759 x 610 mm (29 ⅞ x 24 in)
Order this imageCollection
Kingston Lacy Estate, Dorset
NT 1257142
Caption
Camillo Massimi (1620-1677) is shown wearing the peacock-blue vestments of a private chamberlain to the Pope. Massimi, a member of the one of Rome's most distinguished families, was painted in expensive ultramarine pigment by Velázquez on his second visit to Italy, between 1649-50. Massimi was later created Cardinal with the accession of Clement X in 1670. He was a dedicated humanist, producing a new edition of Virgil, as well as a great patron and collector of medals, antiquities and paintings, particularly by Poussin, Claude, and Velázquez. After his death this portrait was known to have been owned by the Spanish Ambassador in Rome, Don Gaspar de Haro, Marquis del Carpio and de Heliche (1629 - 1687), another renowned collector, notably of The Rokeby Venus (National Gallery, London). This was confirmed when his collector’s mark and coronet were revealed by examination of the original canvas beneath the relining. It was subsequently owned by Count Ferdinando Marescalchi (1754 - 1816) in Bologna from whose collection it was acquired - along with The Judgement of Solomon and Titian’s Nicolò Zen (1515-1565) - by William Bankes for Kingston Lacy in 1820. The sitter's identity was then unknown, the portrait catalogued as an 'Ecclesiastic'.
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Cardinal Camillo Massimi (1620-1677) by Diego Velázquez (Seville 1599 - Madrid 1660),1649-50. Inscribed in brush and ink on the reverse of the original canvas: Coronet / DGH. (entwined) / 430 [DGH = D[on] G[aspar de] H[aro]]. A bust-length portrait, facing, turned slightly to left, seated in a red chair with gold fringed braid, wearing a black biretta, white linen collared shirt and peacock-blue soprana and cassock of a cameriere segreto (private chamberlain) of the Pope (appointed 1646 by Innocent X).
Provenance
Painted in 1649-50 in Rome for the sitter and in his possession until his death (in the inventory of his collection as showing the sitter “in the robes of prelate”); acquired by the Spanish Ambassador in Rome, Don Gaspar de Haro, Marquis del Carpio and de Heliche (1629 - 1687) and his possession until his death in Naples; [...]; acquired by William John Bankes from the Marescalchi Collection in Bologna, 1819/20; bequeathed by Ralph Bankes, 1981.
Credit line
Kingston Lacy, The Bankes Collection (National Trust)
Makers and roles
Diego Velázquez (Seville 1599 - Madrid 1660), artist
Exhibition history
Velázquez, Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais, Paris, 2015, no.74 Velázquez and the Family of Philip IV, Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid, 2013 - 2014, no.2 The Treasure Houses of Britain, National Gallery of Art, Washington, USA, 1985 - 1986, no.492
References
Harris 1958 Enriqueta Harris, ‘Velazquez’s Portrait of Camillo Massimi’, Burlington Magazine, 1958, pp.279-280 López-Ray, 1963: José López-Rey, Velazquez: A Cataogue Raisonné of his Oeuvre, 1963, pp.282-283, no. 471, pl.136 Haskell 1963 & 1980 Francis Haskell, Patrons and Painters. Art and Society in Baroque Italy, London, 1963. Revised and enlarged 1980, p.115-119 Harris and Lank 1983, Enriqueta Harris and Herbert Lank, “The cleaning of Velazquez’s Portrait of Camillo Massimi’, Burlington Magazine, July 1983, no.125, p. 410 - 415 Gore 1986 F. St John Gore, 'The Bankes Collection at Kingston Lacy', Apollo, May 1986, pp. 302-7, pp.302, 306, pl.II on p.307 Beaven 2010 L. Beaven, An Ardent Patron. Cardinal Massimo and his Antiquarian Circle, London 2012 Colmer & Harris 1994 Jose Luis Colomer and Enriquitea Harris, 'Two Letters from Camillo Massimi to Diego Velázquez', The Burlington Magazine, CXXXVI, 1097, 1994, pp. 545-8
