Possibly by Girolamo da Carpi, 'Marco Bracci with Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici', about 1533

This painting looks as if it has been composed from two separate portraits. The figure in the red and white dress of a cardinal points to the signature on the parchment in front of him, ‘Hyppol[itus] me[dicis] Vice cancel[arius]’, which identifies him as Cardinal Ippolito de‘ Medici, vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. The man in black holds his cap in one hand and a portable inkwell (with pen case attached) with the other. This rests on the same piece of parchment, near another signature that reads ’M de Bracijs‘, for Marco Bracci.

Other than the names, the main part of the document (a papal bull, or decree) is illegible, suggesting that the portrait does not commemorate a specific event. Rich green drapery hangs behind the cardinal and there is a slightly open panelled door behind Marco Bracci. The table is covered with a type of Turkish carpet similar to those found in contemporary paintings by Lotto or Holbein.

Marco Bracci is mentioned as chierico di camera (’clerk of the apostolic chamber‘) in a chronicle of Pope Clement VII’s visit to Bologna in 1529–30 for the coronation of the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V. It is likely that Bracci commissioned the picture given his prominence and that the Cardinal is not painted from life, but copied from a portrait of him by Titian of 1532–3 (now Palazzo Pitti, Florence). The painting was probably designed to record Bracci’s importance and to show how, as chancery official, he attended Ippolito de’ Medici in person. Although Bracci has respectfully removed his cap, he is standing in front of the Cardinal and appears the dominant figure.

Ippolito de‘ Medici was born in 1511 in Urbino, the illegitimate son of Giuliano de’ Medici and Pacifica Brandani. After his father’s death in 1516, Ippolito was brought up in Rome in the household of his uncle, Pope Leo X. From 1524 to 1527 he and his cousin Alessandro de‘ Medici and Cardinal Silvio Passerini ruled Florence on behalf of his cousin, Pope Clement VII (Giulio de’ Medici). Cardinal Ippolito de‘ Medici was a patron of writers, scholars and artists, including Titian and Sebastiano del Piombo. He was made vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church in 1532. He also pursued a military career, campaigning against the Turks in Hungary in 1532. He died on 10 August 1535 on his way to Naples, probably of poisoning.

Marco Bracci was born in Florence, probably in the 1490s, to a family of merchants closely associated with the ruling Medici family. After the election of Leo X as pope, Marco moved to Rome, where he stayed until his death in 1551. He obtained many ecclesiastical appointments, serving four popes. At Charles V’s coronation ceremony in Bologna, Bracci presented him with the hat and sword that had been blessed by Pope Clement VII. Bracci was a friend of the writer Pietro Aretino, who described him as ’a joy to his friends, and the very best of fellows‘.

Girolamo da Carpi was in Bologna at the time of the coronation ceremony, and it is possible that this portrait is by him. It probably dates from after Titian’s portrait of Ippolito de’ Medici was painted in 1532–3, and after Ippolito was made vice-chancellor.