Self-portrait with a friend

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Self-portrait with a friend (double portrait) (Raffael)
Self-portrait with a friend (double portrait)
Raphael , 1518-1520
Oil on canvas
99 × 83 cm
Musée du Louvre , Paris

The Self-Portrait with a Friend (also known as the Double Portrait ) is a painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Raphael . Raphael created the 99 cm × 83 cm painting in oil on canvas between 1518 and 1520. It belongs to the artist's late work and is now in the Musée du Louvre in Paris .

Image description

The painting shows two men against a dark background. One is shown seated and looks at the other who is standing behind him. The person behind looks out of the picture, towards the viewer, and grabs the shoulder of the person in front with his left hand. Both men have beards and are middle-aged. The person in the foreground is wearing a black jacket over a pleated shirt and is holding a saber or foil with his left hand while pointing out of the picture with his right hand.

It could be a friendship portrait intended for a third person who was not depicted in the painting. That third person would be the one the man behind is looking at and the one who is sitting points. In addition, it is possible for the two of them to sit across from a mirror and be shown their own reflection or the person behind looks at themselves.

History and identification

Giulio Antonio Bonasone , portrait of Raphael, copper engraving, 1530–1560

The person behind is very likely to represent Raphael , but for a long time there was a lack of clarity about their identity and the authorship of the painting. This has to do with the fact that this painting is not listed in the biography of Raphael by Giorgio Vasari and there are also no contemporary Italian copies. The painting was first mentioned in writing in 1608 by the two French Rascas de Bagarris and Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc , who describe it as part of the collection of the Château de Fontainebleau . In 1625, the Italian Cassiano del Pozzo also referred to it as a painting in this collection. How the painting came to France is not known. Peiresc assumed that it was a self-portrait by Giovanni Antonio da Pordenone , while del Pozzo thought the author was Jacopo da Pontormo . In 1683 Charles Le Brun recorded the entire art collection of Louis XIV. The double portrait was listed with the number 10 and was placed under the authorship of Raphael for the first time.

Today, Raffael is no longer doubted as the author of the painting and the figure behind is taken for his self-portrait. The identification of the man behind with Raphael has existed since the Renaissance. The double portrait probably served as a model for a copper engraving by Giulio Antonio Bonasone , because it shows Raphael in a very similar way to the self-portrait. That it is about Raphael is made clear by a corresponding label. A similar representation can be found in the Villa Lante al Gianicolo in Rome , where a fresco shows Raphael's head in a tondo . The Villa Lante al Gianicolo was started by Raphael in 1518 and completed after his death by his pupil Giulio Romano between 1520 and 1521. The portrait therefore seems to have been made in honor of Raphael.

The identity of the seated man in the foreground is not clearly established. Charles Le Brun's assumption that the person was Jacopo da Pontormo persisted until the middle of the 18th century, when François-Bernard Lépicié included the fictional figure of the fencing teacher in his catalog of the royal collection, written between 1752 and 1754 introduced. Since then, the second person has been referred to repeatedly as Raphael's fencing teacher.

Contemporary art historians have different theories as to who the person could be, but almost exclusively assume that it must have been a close friend of Raphael. One possibility would be Giovanni Battista Branconio dell'Aquila, a papal notary and good friend of Raphael, who became his executor after his death . Critics of this theory consider this unlikely, since Branconio was ten years older than Raphael, but the two men portrayed were portrayed roughly the same age. Furthermore, it would not have been appropriate for Raphael to touch a well-known person from Roman life in the manner depicted. Another theory is that it was Pietro Aretino and the painting was a gift for their mutual friend Agostino Chigi . Often the person is also sought in the vicinity of Raphael's workshop. It could therefore be one of his students or collaborators, possibly Giulio Romano or Polidoro da Caravaggio .

literature

  • Janet Cox-Rearick: The collection of Francis I. Royal Treasures . Mercator Paribas Fund, Antwerp 1995, ISBN 90-6153-346-5 (English).
  • Jürg Meyer zur Capellen : Raphael. A critical catalog of his paintings. Volume III. The Roman Portraits, ca.1508–1520 . Arcos Verlag, Landshut 2008 (English).
  • Joanna Woods-Marsden: Renaissance Self-Portraiture. The Visual Construction of Identity and the Social Status of the Artist . Yale Univ. Press, New Haven / London 1998, ISBN 0-300-07596-0 (English).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christof Thoenes: Raphael . Cologne 2008, p. 6 .
  2. ^ A b Cecil Gould: Raphael's Double Portrait in the Louvre: An Identification for the Second Figure . In: Artibus et Historiae . No. 10 , 1984, pp. 57-60 .
  3. ↑ Joanna Woods-Marsden: Renaissance Self-Portraiture. The Visual Construction of Identity and the Social Status of the Artist . New Haven / London 1998, pp. 128 .
  4. ↑ Janet Cox-Rearick: The collection of Francis I. Royal Treasures . Antwerp 1995, p. 217 .
  5. ^ A b Janet Cox-Rearick: The collection of Francis I. Royal Treasures . Antwerp 1995, p. 219 .
  6. ↑ a b c Jürg Meyer zur Capellen: Raphael. A critical catalog of his paintings. Volume III. The Roman Portraits, ca.1508–1520 . Landshut 2008, p. 139 .
  7. ↑ Janet Cox-Rearick: The collection of Francis I. Royal Treasures . Antwerp 1995, p. 220 .
  8. ↑ Paul Johannides: Giulio Romano in Raphael's workshop . In: Quaderni di Palazzo del Te . No. 8 , 2000, pp. 35 .
  9. ↑ Norbert Gramaccini: Raffael and his pupil - a painted art theory . In: Georges Bloch Yearbook of the Art History Department of the University of Zurich . tape 2 , 1995, p. 45 .