PORTRAIT OF A VENETIAN PATRICIAN

Venetian Patrician

PORTRAIT OF A VENETIAN PATRICIAN

JACOPO TINTORETTO (1518-1594)

(Text and Picture Copyright in 1977 by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester which is not responsible for this publication.)

The letter “M” which is seen on a shield displaying half a crest permits the assumption that the name of the sitter is Marcello, possibly Jacopo Marcello, a member of the magistrature but not a procurator ( as has been proposed), and one of those responsible for the redecoration of the Great Council Hall after the fire of 1577.The older authorities gave this portrait to Jacopo Tintoretto, and the first to challenge this attribution was Paola Rossi, who ascribes it to the artist’s son Domenico and relates it the portrait of Giovanni Paola Contarini  in the Accademia , Venice (no. 1012) which was recorded by Boschini as being by Domenico when in the Procuratia de Supra. However, John H. Maxon considers it to be by Jacopo, dating from ca. 1550 and that the background and possibly the materials might be by an assistant. (68.97)

PORTRAIT OF A BOY OF THE BRACCIFORTE FAMILY

PORTRAIT OF A BOY OF THE BRACCIFORTE FAMILY

Niccolo dell’Abbate, Italian, ca. 1512-1571

(Text and Picture Copyright, 1977 by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester which is not responsible for this publication.)

Girolama Mazzola Bedoli

Susan E. Schilling pointed out that the gilded metal identifies the family of the sitter and that the allegorical winged figure with two long thin trumpets—a symbol of France—is a motif used by the artist on at least one other occasion is a design for a room decoration in France. The portrait was painted in Bologna, where the artist worked from 1547 to 1552. (76.13)

THE JUDGEMENT OF THE EMPEROR OTHO III OF SAXONY

Franco-Flemish, ca 1495

(Text and Picture Copyright in 1977 by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester which is not responsible for this publication.)

The Judgement of the Emperor Otho

The tapestry shows the Emperor Otho of Saxony judging his Queen, who is confronted by the widow of a count she had put to death because he had refrained from responding from her advances. This popular 12^th century is related in the Pantheon by Godfrey of Viterbo, who served as chaplain to three Emperors. He states: “She (the Queen) fell desperately in love with a young count near Modena and promptly declared to him her feelings, for she was in such matters more inclined to ask others than to wait for others to ask her. The Count was as virtuous as he was handsome, and repelled all her offers. The Empress complained to her husband that the count had made love to her and Otho as a credulous man promptly had the alleged culprit’s head cut off! Godfrey of Viterbo continues by saying that the Empress was burned to death by Otho’s orders. These events took place about the end of the 10^th Century. (30.1)

PORTRAITS OF JOHANNES IV AND SIGISMUND

                                    PORTRAITS OF JOHANNES IV AND SIGISMUND, DUKES OF BAVARIA

GERMAN, SWABIAN, CA. 1470

THE VERSO CONTAINS VERSES IN GERMAN AND LATIN

From a manuscript, “Reim-Chronic”

(Text and Picture Copyright in 1977 by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester which is not responsible for this publication.)

               

Portraits of Bavarian Princes

The identity of the figures is established by the names inscribed above each prince and by their shield of alliances. They were the sons of Albrecht III, Duke of Bavaria, whose will they were entrusted to share the government. After Johannes’s death of the plague in 1463, Sigismund (1439-1501) continued to rule to 1467. Further details about the historical background are contained in the full entry in the catalogue, Master Drawings & Prints, William H. Schab Gallery.

Three drawings from the same album, which was broken up in 1935, are in the Print Room, Berlin-Dahlem, and are related to a partially preserved fresco cycle which used to decorate the residence of the Bavarian princes in Munich and of which the remains are in the Bayerische Nationalmuseum. The Frescoes are by the Master of the Polling Panels. (75.128).

ARITHMETIC AND ASTRONOMY

ARITHMETIC AND ASTRONOMY (28.457)

This tapestry is part of a large tapestry representing the Seven Liberal Arts, which, it has been suggested served as added decoration on feast days in the Spanish Chapel of Santa Maria, Novella, Florence. The same allegorical occur there in the frescoes of the left wall by Andrea de Firenze. In the tapestry the figure of Astronomy is accompanied by Ptolemy and that of Arithmetic by Archimedes. On the latter’s robe are woven, “KHYN,” the name of the designer, from a family of famous tapestry weavers of Tournai. Another fragment, Geometry, probably from the same tapestry, is in the collection of the Grand Lodge Library and Museum of Freemasons’ Hall, London. The border on the Memori al Art Gallery tapestry is a later edition. 

ARITHMETIC AND ASTRONOMY

Flemish, Tournai, ca. 1400

(Text and Picture Copyright in 1977 by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester which is not responsible for this publication.)

THE ANNUNCIATION TO ZACHARIAH

Master of the Urbino Coronation

The Annunciation to Zachariah (43.3)

(Text and  Picture Copyright 1977 by the Memorial Art Gallery of the University of Rochester which is not responsible for this publication.)

The Annunciation to Zachariah

This detached fresco is believed to have been originally in the church of S. Lucia, Fabriano. The subject, taken from the first chapter of Luke, presents the vision of the aged Zachariah as he officiates at the altar of incense and learns from the angel Gabriel that his wife, Elizabeth, although “well stricken in years,” is to bear a son, John, who will “make ready a people” for the Lord. The crowds, who “waited….and marveled,” are at the right, dressed in the 14^th century Florentine style, the middle figure wearing the painted turban of a Jew. The kneeling figure at the left is probably the donor of the panel.

Zeri  was the first to attribute this picture to the Master of the Urbino Coronation, a master re-constructed by Mario Salmi in 1932. Zeri connected it with companion frescoes, Crucifixion in the Museum of fine Arts, Boston and The Birth of John the Baptist Galleria Nazionale, Rome.