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Lot Essay
This striking full-length portrait has excited much scholarly interest with regards to the identity of the sitter. Stylistically, it bears a close relationship to Empoli's Portrait of a Noblewoman dressed in mourning, dated circa 1600 (Chicago, Art Institute). The similarity between the two portraits is a topic of much interest in the ongoing research on Empoli's corpus of paintings. They share the same compositional characteristics: a full-length sitter placed squarely on tiled flooring, just in front of a covered table, with a draped curtain to one side, each sitter framed closely by the picture rectangle. They have similar dimensions (the Chicago picture is 221 x 122.5 cm.) and the same nineteenth-century provenance, having emerged from the collection of Nicholas Vansittart, 1st Baron Bexley (1766-1851). Each is inscribed with a similarly enigmatic abbreviation, that on the Chicago portrait reading 'A.L. HT. B.'. In neither case has it been possible to decipher the meaning of these initials. It is to be hoped that their eventual decipherment will elucidate the circumstances of the commission or the idenity of the sitters.
As the young gentleman is also dressed in mourning, he has been tentatively identified as the lady's son. There has been much more speculation as to her identity. Traditionally, she has been thought to be a member of the Medici family, but her features do not correspond with any of those catalogued by Karla Langedijk (The Portraits of the Medici: 15th-18th Centuries, Florence, 1981, 1983 and 1987). Given the Villa Salviati provenance, she has also been thought to be an unidentified member of that important family. Professor Marabottini takes this hypothesis further, pointing out that the Crucifix on the table is extremely close to those by Giambologna, for example that in the Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso in the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence. Giambologna decorated the Salviati chapel in San Marco in Florence and it is highly probable, given his close relationship with the family, that a Crucifix of his workmanship was kept in the family palace for private devotion, and could very well be the one reproduced in this painting (A. Marabottini, L'Empoli, Rome, 1988, p. 226, no. 67). Other scholars have read the sequence of triple crescent moons on the gentleman's hat as a reference to the Strozzi coat-of-arms.
Despite obvious differences between the two paintings, including the colour of the curtains and the lighting, there are enough similarities to lead Professor Miles Chappell to note that 'even with these disparities, they do relate to one another and reflect their time' (op. cit., p. 159).
We are grateful to Dr. Francesca Baldassari for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.
As the young gentleman is also dressed in mourning, he has been tentatively identified as the lady's son. There has been much more speculation as to her identity. Traditionally, she has been thought to be a member of the Medici family, but her features do not correspond with any of those catalogued by Karla Langedijk (The Portraits of the Medici: 15th-18th Centuries, Florence, 1981, 1983 and 1987). Given the Villa Salviati provenance, she has also been thought to be an unidentified member of that important family. Professor Marabottini takes this hypothesis further, pointing out that the Crucifix on the table is extremely close to those by Giambologna, for example that in the Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso in the Church of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence. Giambologna decorated the Salviati chapel in San Marco in Florence and it is highly probable, given his close relationship with the family, that a Crucifix of his workmanship was kept in the family palace for private devotion, and could very well be the one reproduced in this painting (A. Marabottini, L'Empoli, Rome, 1988, p. 226, no. 67). Other scholars have read the sequence of triple crescent moons on the gentleman's hat as a reference to the Strozzi coat-of-arms.
Despite obvious differences between the two paintings, including the colour of the curtains and the lighting, there are enough similarities to lead Professor Miles Chappell to note that 'even with these disparities, they do relate to one another and reflect their time' (op. cit., p. 159).
We are grateful to Dr. Francesca Baldassari for confirming the attribution on the basis of photographs.