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Lot Essay
This enigmatic double portrait by Bartolomeo Passarotti dates to circa 1575-77. It is characteristic of the artist’s speaking portraits, in which he attempts to convey his sitters in motion. Acting as both a rhetorical device and a study in spirited naturalism, these portraits helped to establish his position as the pre-eminent painter in Bologna.
Here, the artist has positioned the two figures in a confined space. Their identities are unclear and provide a stimulating narrative context: they may be a husband and wife, a brother and sister or even a father and daughter. The gentleman glances out at the viewer, his right eyebrow partly raised. With his right hand he motions actively, while with his left he grasps his mantle in a gesture reminiscent of Passarotti’s Portrait of Gaspare Bargellini (Davia Bargellini, Bologna). By contrast, the younger woman appears stolid. She acts as the gentleman’s foil, staring at him, her face is still and her body comparatively static. Her pose draws on the models for female portraiture developed by Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli and Parmigianino, which often positioned the woman with her hand on her breast, her figure enveloped in fine garments and jewels. Here, however, her dress is sober and she wears simple gold jewelry, which accords with the modest black vestments of her male counterpart. Against this dark, restricted palette, Passarotti introduces visual stimulation through variations in light, seen, for example, in the folds of the female sitter’s dress, or in the subtle glint of her bracelet and ring.
Here, the artist has positioned the two figures in a confined space. Their identities are unclear and provide a stimulating narrative context: they may be a husband and wife, a brother and sister or even a father and daughter. The gentleman glances out at the viewer, his right eyebrow partly raised. With his right hand he motions actively, while with his left he grasps his mantle in a gesture reminiscent of Passarotti’s Portrait of Gaspare Bargellini (Davia Bargellini, Bologna). By contrast, the younger woman appears stolid. She acts as the gentleman’s foil, staring at him, her face is still and her body comparatively static. Her pose draws on the models for female portraiture developed by Girolamo Mazzola Bedoli and Parmigianino, which often positioned the woman with her hand on her breast, her figure enveloped in fine garments and jewels. Here, however, her dress is sober and she wears simple gold jewelry, which accords with the modest black vestments of her male counterpart. Against this dark, restricted palette, Passarotti introduces visual stimulation through variations in light, seen, for example, in the folds of the female sitter’s dress, or in the subtle glint of her bracelet and ring.