Portrait of a bearded gentleman, bust-length, in a black fur-trimmed coat

Although best known as a painter of large religious and mythological narratives, Jacopo Tintoretto’s ability as a portraitist won him great acclaim amongst his contemporaries. Gian Paolo Lomazzo, artist and writer, described Tintoretto as ‘ritrattista d’eterna fama’ (‘a portraitist of eternal fame’; G.P. Lomazzo, Trattato dell’arte della pittura, Milan, 1584, p. 434). He was admired not only for the quality of his work but also the speed of his execution. In a letter of 1548 Andrea Calmo praised Tintoretto’s ability to capture a likeness from nature in a mere half-hour. In 1559 he was appointed portraitist to the Republic of Venice, and over the course of the next four decades, he secured the patronage of the city’s officials, as well as leading figures among the intelligentsia.

The sitter in the present portrait is unidentified, and there are few visual cues to suggest his status - he lacks the senatorial or procuratorial robes often seen in Tintoretto’s portraits. However, his rich black velvet and fur-lined coat indicate that he must have belonged to Venice’s elite. The restrained colour palette and dark, neutral background are characteristic of Tintoretto’s portraiture, as is the contrast between the rapid execution of the fur, the swift swipes of white paint forming his fine linen collar, and his carefully modelled face. A comparable portrait, sold at Sotheby’s, New York (28 January 2021, lot 23) dated to 1543, shares with the present work Tintoretto’s distinctive technique for depicting the sitter’s eyes with white flecks of paint that intensifies the subject's gaze. The hint of the sitter’s wrist and the corner of what may be a glove at the lower edge suggest the painting has been reduced from its original size.

We are grateful to Dr. Frederick Ilchman for endorsing the attribution to Tintoretto on the basis of firsthand inspection, and to Antonio Mazzotta for endorsing the attribution on the basis of high-resolution photographs.