Gregorio Lazzarini, 'Portrait of Antonio (?) Correr', 1685

This lively portrait creates the impression that we have been granted a special audience with its sitter, who looks out at us with a quizzical glance. He wears a long wig, a furred robe and a prominent belt with 12 silver clasps, which tell us that he is a Venetian nobleman in winter dress. The inscription on the pilaster in the left background identifies the sitter as Antonio Correr, son of Vittore Correr, Procurator of San Marco (a guardian to Venice’s most famous square and its buildings). Painted below are the date of 1685, the Correr coat of arms and the artist’s name.

Vittore Correr (1658–1714) did indeed become Procurator of San Marco in 1685, but he is not known to have had any sons. It’s possible that the inscriptions have been tampered with and that the sitter could actually be Vittore. The date of 1685 was once thought to mark the year the portrait was painted, but this was not necessarily the purpose of the inscription: it is more likely meant to commemorate when Vittore won his appointment. The portrait is of a type commonly made to mark an official appointment in the Venetian state administration.

The background view is probably meant to suggest the colonnade of the Procuratie in the Piazza San Marco, which appears in other views of Venice in the National Gallery’s collection by Canaletto (Venice: Piazza San Marco and the Colonnade of the Procuratie Nuove) and Guardi (Venice: Piazza San Marco).