After Gentile Bellini, 'Doge Niccolò Marcello', after 1474

The unusual horn-shaped cap and sumptuous silk robes identify this man as a doge, the elected ruler of Venice. We can't be sure who he is, but he has been identified in the past as Doge Niccolò Marcello, who was in power briefly from 1473 to 1474 (this was clearly the view of whoever inscribed the back of the picture in the eighteenth century). A medal (Bode Museum, Berlin) inscribed with Marcello’s name shows a man with the same bulbous nose and forward-leaning posture as this portrait’s sitter; some have used this to identify him.

Gentile Bellini was a member of the leading family of painters in Venice; the National Gallery also owns works by his brother Giovanni. In 1474 he was commissioned to paint the frieze of portraits of the doges in the sala del consiglio, the council room in the Doge’s Palace (the residence of the doge and the place where state business was conducted).

This portrait might be a copy of the one Gentile made of Doge Marcello for that frieze, which was destroyed by fire in 1577. The image must have been well-known as Titian made a version of it in the 1540s (now in the Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican, Rome). As was traditional for portraits – and especially portraits of rulers – the sitter is shown in profile view, then seen as the most characteristic and striking way to record a person’s features. It was also formal: the sitter did not have to engage with the viewer, maintaining a psychological distance suitable to high-ranking officials.

Here, the doge is placed behind a ledge which further removes him, physically this time, from the viewer. The fabric on the ledge, like his silk robes, is woven with what was known as the pomegranate design. Hugely popular in Venice, this design was originally derived from eastern Mediterranean textiles but later produced and exported by Venetian merchants. An expensive luxury item, its use here is a sign of the doge’s wealth, and indicates that he presided over a vibrant and wealthy mercantile city state.