Description
- Jacopino del Conte
- Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter length, standing and holding a pair of gloves in his right hand, his left hand resting on a book, before a green curtain
- oil on panel, transferred to canvas
Provenance
Palazzo Capponi, Florence;
Vicomte Jules de Peyronnet (1804-1972);
Thence by descent to his granddaughter, Lady Mary Isabel Peyronnet Browne (1881-1947), Mount Browne, Guildford, Surrey;
By whose Estate sold, London, Christie's, 12 March 1948, lot 114 (as Bronzino, "Portrait of Niccolo Marchiavelli"), for 120 Guineas, to Agnew's;
With Thos. Agnew and Sons, London (as Bronzino);
From whom acquired by a European collector;
Thence by descent in the family until 2015 when acquired by the current owner.
Literature
S. Lecchini Giovannoni, "Alcune proposte per l'attività ritrattistica di Alessandro Allori," in Antichità viva, VII, 1, 1968, pp. 53, 56, reproduced fig. 11 (as Alessandro Allori);
F. Zeri, "Rivedendo Jacopino del Conte," in Antologia di belle arti, 6, 1978, p. 120, reproduced fig. 14.
Condition
The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.
This work was originally painted on a wooden panel and has been transferred onto canvas. The panel had probably become unstable or distorted, and the work was transferred to consolidate the paint layer. The transfer seems to have been very successful. Old cracks in the panel running through the picture can be seen in raking light. The varnish is very glossy, but the condition of much of the paint layer is quite good, despite numerous vertical lines of restoration addressing these old cracks and losses. It is difficult to identify some of the retouches under ultraviolet light, but it can be seen that the far left side of the face has received retouches, including a loss in the left of the neck. There are a couple of other thin cracks that have been restored in the forehead and around the nose. The right edge has received a small addition. The paint layer is stable, and the retouches are well applied. There is a small scratch in the varnish in the neck of the figure, but the work can otherwise be hung as is.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."
Catalogue Note
Jacopino del Conte was born in Florence where he was a pupil of Andrea del Sarto and worked independently on a number of devotional works after his master’s death in 1530. By 1538 he had settled in Rome and was a member of the Accademia di San Luca. While continuing to paint religious subjects, notably a fresco cycle for the decoration of the oratory of San Giovanni Decollato, he also turned to portraiture, eventually becoming one of Rome’s leading portrait painters. According to his biographer, the painter Giovanni Baglione, he painted all the popes of his time, as well as cardinals, Roman princes, ambassadors and nobility.
1
This portrait was published by Federico Zeri (see Literature) in 1978 as by del Conte after having been given to Bronzino and then to Alessandro Allori. The identity of the sitter, at one time thought to be Niccolo Machiavelli, remains unknown. Stylistically it can be placed within del Conte’s works of the early 1540s. His Portrait of Cardinal Niccolo Gaddi (Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum), of circa 1545, depicts a similar architectural background in the left background, with light falling through a window, and Gaddi similarly holds gloves in one hand. More striking is the similar 🐭pose and bearing of Ottavio Farnese in del Conte’s double portrait of Farnese and Pope Paul III (formerly Barsanti collection, Rome).
1. See. G. Baglione, Le vite de’ pittori, scultori et architetti, Rome 1649, p. 75.