Associate of Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen, 'Portrait of a Man (Alfonso de Valdés?)', about 1531
About the work
Overview
The sitter, wearing a lynx-lined coat, holds up a medal showing a bearded man dressed as a cardinal; the Latin inscription identifies him as Mercurio Arbono di Gattinara, Grand Chancellor to Emperor Charles V. The sitter is probably Alfonso de Valdés, one of Gattinara’s closest associates.
Judging from the costume, the portrait was perhaps painted shortly after Gattinara’s death in 1530. Alfonso was in the Low Countries in 1531; in October of that year he wrote to a friend and mentioned a portrait left unfinished in the Netherlands, of which copies were being made (he didn't name the artist of the original or the copy).
Although the painting has been trimmed and is damaged and discoloured by retouching, stylistically it can be attributed to the principal associate of Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen, painter and tapestry designer to the Habsburgs. Vermeyen seems to have had a colleague who trained in the workshop of Bernaert van Orley and who worked on a number of his portraits, including this one.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Portrait of a Man (Alfonso de Valdés?)
- Artist
- Associate of Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen
- Artist dates
- about 1504; died 1559
- Date made
- about 1531
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 42 × 33.8 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Salting Bequest, 1910
- Inventory number
- NG2607
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
- Previous owners
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Lorne Campbell, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings: With French Paintings before 1600’, London 2014; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Bibliography
-
1945Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, London 1945
-
1955Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: Early Netherlandish School, 2nd edn (revised), London 1955
-
1987Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Early Netherlandish School, 3rd edn, London 1987
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
-
2014
L. Campbell, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Netherlandish Paintings: With French Paintings before 1600, 2 vols, London 2014
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.