Portrait of Jacopo de Strada
|
| Portrait of Jacopo de Strada |
|---|
| Titian , 1567/68 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 125 x 195 cm |
| Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna |
The painting Portrait Jacopo de Strada is a painting by Titian from 1567/68 . The portrait was painted with oil paint on canvas and is now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna .
Image description
Jacopo de Strada, who commissioned the work, is portrayed in his fifty-first year. What is quite unusual for the portrait type of this time is the fact that the person portrayed does not look directly at the viewer, but is shown as it were "in action" during his business. De Strada's attitude seems to express that he does not communicate with the viewer himself, but with a person to the side, to whom he presents a statuette depicting the goddess Aphrodite . Several coins are scattered on the table, indicating de Strada's numismatic interest.
In order to give the image composition a little dynamism and to emphasize the movement of the sitter, the artist lets the opulent de Stradas fur cloak slide off his right shoulder so that it is only held by his left shoulder. The clothes - the fur, the red silk shirt with the shimmering black vest over it - document the prosperity of the sitter. The gold chain, looped four times around the neck, has a pendant on which a helmeted head can be seen in profile. The chain and the sword identify the sitter as a nobleman . The cartridge , which is mounted on a pillar on the right, bears an inscription. The pillar itself is structurally incomprehensible and probably has the sole purpose of supporting the cartridge.
The inscription
The inscription reads: “JACOBVUS DE STRADA CIVIS ROMANVS CAESS. ANTIQVARIVS ET COM. BELIC. AN: AETAT: LI: et CMDL XVI ”and means:“ Jacopo de Strada, Roman citizen, imperial antiquarian and minister of war, at the age of 51, in 1566 ”.
The client
Jacopo de Strada was from Mantua derived art collector and -sachverständiger, goldsmith , archeologist and painter . He began his career collecting coins, and wrote a book about it with the title “De consulibus numismatibus ”. In the inscription, de Strada proudly refers to his occupation as an imperial antiquarian , and in this regard, too, he wrote a book in 1553, namely “Epitome thesauri antiquitatum, hoc est, impp. rom. orientalium et occidentalium iconum, ex antiquis numismatibus qu… m fidelissimus deliniantur, ex musaeo Iacobi de Strada Mantuani Antiquarij ” . His own writings can be found in the portrait above his head, so they have outgrown it, as it were.
Jacopo de Strada founded the Munich “Antiquarium” in the service of Duke Albrecht V of Bavaria and later held the same position at the Viennese and Prague courts under the emperors Ferdinand I , Maximilian II and Rudolf II. The name “COM (ES ) BEL (L) IC (US) ”- that is, Minister of War, is certainly an exaggeration de Strada, he apparently derived this“ title ”from drawings he had made as construction plans for war machines.
He had himself painted by Titian, who was a friend of his and was already very old at the time, although he was probably encouraged to depict not only the objects of the Profession de Stradas, but also his dignities such as chain and sword. Tizian signed the painting on the upper left: "TITIANVS F (ECIT)". The letter lying on the table contains the words "Al Mag co Sig ore il Sig or Titian Vecellio Venezia", which indicates that the painting has a friendly homage character beyond the commission .
Provenance
The Vienna Kunsthistorisches Museum owes its possession of this painting, as in many other cases, to the Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria , who amassed a large and important art collection in the Spanish Netherlands , which was looked after by David Teniers and in numerous gallery pictures (including in Vienna, Munich and Brussels ). Leopold Wilhelm collected mostly Dutch and Italian masters, especially Venetians from the 16th century. The portrait of Jacopo de Strada can be seen in a painting by Teniers, which was made around 1651 and shows the Archduke in his gallery, at the top left. After the death of the Archduke, his nephew, Emperor Leopold I , inherited the important collection, whereby the portrait of Stradas also came into imperial possession and thus later became the property of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.
literature
- Norbert Schneider: portrait painting. Major works of European visual art 1420-1670 , Cologne 1999, ISBN 3-8228-6586-9
- Luba Reedman: Titian's Jacopo da Strada: a portrait of an 'antiquario'. In: Renaissance Studies. 1999. Vol. 13. No. 1. pp. 15-39. Full text
Individual evidence
- ↑ Kunsthistorisches Museum (ed.): The picture gallery of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. List of paintings, written by Sylvia Ferino-Padgen, Wolfgang Prohaska and Karl Schütz. Vienna 1991, p. 124
- ^ Norbert Schneider: portrait painting. Major works of European visual art , 1420-1670, Cologne 1999, p. 103