A Procurator of St Mark's, Venice, possibly Girolamo Foscarini
manner of Jacopo Tintoretto (Venice 1518 - Venice 1594)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1530 - 1599
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
1100 x 950 mm
Order this imageCollection
Osterley Park and House, London
NT 771273
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, A Procurator of St Mark's, Venice possibly Girolamo Foscarinia in the manner of Jacopo Tintoretto (Venice 1518 - Venice 1594). Three-quarter-length portrait of a bearded man, turned to the left, gazing at the spectator,in long red velvet robe, he rests his left hand on a table, and stands in an interior setting with a curtain behind his left shoulder; he turns slightly to his left to look out at the viewer. Possibly Girolamo Foscarini. The Foscarini were a Venetian noble family, but this particular member of it has yet to be identified. It seems likely that he was a kinsman of Giacomo Foscarini, +1602, diplomat, public servant, naval commander, Procurator of St Mark's, and onetime candidate for Doge. Like its pendant [L/OST/P/87], this is one of the Venetian pictures bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Miss Margaret Coutts Trotter in 1882. Jacopo Tintoretto (1519-1594) was the most prolific painter working in Venice in the later 16th century. His father was a cloth-dyer, a common and respectable occupation in Renaissance Venice and Jacopo’s adopted nickname ‘tintoretto’ meaning ‘the little dyer’ advertised his artisan background. In addition to his religious and mythological works, Jacopo painted many portraits of prominent Venetians. He worked in a quick, abbreviated style and his intentional the lack of conventional finish was seen by some as careless and caused controversy among his contemporaries. Beginning in the 1550s, Tintoretto and his studio received numerous commissions for portraits of Venetian civic leaders. The unidentified sitter in 1444-1882 wears a crimson velvet robe lined with ermine and richly patterned stole which identify him as a procurator, a Venetian civic official similar to a chancellor or senator. Standing in a three-quarter pose, the man turns his head as if to address the viewer, perhaps regarding the letter or documents he holds in his left hand. His sobre gaze and the voluminous bulk of his costume reinforces his high official status. Although executed in a less gestural and somewhat 'flatter' painting technique, this type of portrait composition recalls Tintoretto's many portraits of Venetian officials of the late 16th century such as the Portrait of a Procurator in Washington and the Portrait of a Bearded Man in Berlin. [From V&A description]
Provenance
Bequeathed to the Victoria and Albert Museum by Miss Margaret Coutts Trotter in 1882; on loan from the Victoria and Albert Museum
Marks and inscriptions
Top left 'IERONIMUS FOSCARENUS/Qo ANTONIO'
Makers and roles
manner of Jacopo Tintoretto (Venice 1518 - Venice 1594), artist