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

About the work

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. 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.

It might be a copy of the image of Doge Marcello from the frieze of doges’ portraits in the Doge’s Palace that Gentile Bellini made for the sala del consiglio (state council room) 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).

Key facts

Full title
Doge Niccolò Marcello
Artist
After Gentile Bellini
Artist dates
active about 1460; died 1507
Date made
after 1474
Medium and support
oil on wood
Dimensions
62.2 × 45.1 cm
Inscription summary
Signed; Dated and inscribed
Acquisition credit
Layard Bequest, 1916
Inventory number
NG3100
Location
Not on display
Collection
Main Collection
Previous owners

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.

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