Francesco Bonsignori, 'Portrait of an Elderly Man', 1487

Portrait of an Elderly Man

Francesco Bonsignori

Not on display

About the work

Overview

In late fifteenth-century Venice, a striking style of portraiture – derived from Netherlandish portraiture – was being popularised in the city by the Sicilian artist Antonello da Messina; this is a typical example of it. The dark background, the three-quarter pose and the sharp lighting used here were key features of the style.

Here, Bonsignori has very closely observed the old man’s unique features, including his distinctive nose and ear, and his wrinkles. Drawing was very important in Bonsignori’s artistic process; his style drew upon the precision of Mantegna, an artist he knew. For this portrait, he made a detailed drawing to use as a guide, which he transferred to the panel like a tracing. There is also a surviving preparatory study for the portrait in the Albertina Museum, Vienna.

In-depth

In late fifteenth-century Venice, a striking style of portraiture derived from Netherlandish examples was being popularised in the city by the Sicilian artist Antonello da Messina; this is a typical example of it. Its key elements – the dark background, the three-quarter pose and the sharp lighting – are found here.

The cartellino (the painted scrap of paper attached to the green stone ledge) has been signed and dated by Francesco Bonsignori. We can‘t be sure who this old man is, but the portrait of him is distinctive, both for the observation of his features and for the way that his distant gaze encourages us to imagine what he might be thinking. Bonsignori has, unusually, included a detailed study of the man’s ear. In most portraits like this the ear was covered by a hat or hair, but he seems to enjoy its shell-like curves and fleshy, round lobe. The three-quarter view of the man’s head makes his unusually shaped nose an equally distinctive feature of the picture. His jaw muscles have loosened with age, creating wobbly jowls; his pale blue-grey eyes and strong, almost pointed, features give a sense of his intellect and character.

Technical examination has shown underdrawing beneath the paint surface, which acted as a guide for the outlines of the man’s features and also for details such as the wrinkles around his eyes. The precision of the drawing suggests that it is based on a cartoon, a design that was manually transferred onto the panel.

A drawing that matches this portrait of the old man almost exactly is now in the Albertina Museum, Vienna. The Vienna drawing is sometimes thought to be by Mantegna, Bonsignori’s contemporary; they met in the city of Mantua. It has even been suggested that Mantegna supplied Bonsignori with the drawing but there’s not enough evidence to be sure. It seems more likely that Bonsignori made the drawing as a preparatory study before the painting. This is the only close-up portrait drawing by the artist to survive, but drawing was a very important part of his artistic process. Isabella d’Este, Marchioness of Mantua, admired his drawings, praising the one he made when painting her young son Federigo.

The sharp intellect that shines through the man’s face seems to have been put to use in a senior position in the administration of Venice: he wears the black stole and cap that were the uniform of the Venetian citizen and patrician classes, but the red tunic (fur-lined here) indicates that he was either a magistrate or a member of one of the city’s councils. Documentary evidence suggests that he might be Giovanni Cappello, a senator and procurator from the San Marco area of the city from about 1466. We can't be sure, but the costume and date do make this possible, especially as Giovanni Cappello would have been around 60 at the time this portrait was made.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Portrait of an Elderly Man
Artist: Francesco Bonsignori
Artist dates: 1455/60? - 1519?
Date made: 1487
Medium and support: egg tempera on wood
Dimensions: 41.9 × 29.8 cm
Inscription summary: Signed; Dated
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1864
Inventory number: NG736
Location: Not on display
Collection: Main Collection

Provenance

A portrait with the same signature was in the eighteenth century in the Museo Cappello, Venice. Bought by Cesare Bernasconi, Verona, from a painter of Venice, ca. 1848. Purchased from Cesare Bernasconi, 1864.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Martin Davies, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools’, London 1986; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2011

The Renaissance Portrait: from Donatello to Bellini

Bode-Museum

25 August 2011 - 20 November 2011

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

21 December 2011 - 18 March 2012

Bibliography

1851

C. Bernasconi and A. Aleardi, Descrizione dei Dipinti raccolti dal Dr. Cesare Bernasconi nella sua casa di Verona, Verona 1851
1864

C. Bernasconi, Studj sopra la storia della pittura italiana dei secoli XIV e XV e della scuola pittorica veronese dai medj tempi fino a tutto il secolo XVIII, Verona 1864
1912

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century, ed. T. Borenius, 2nd edn, 3 vols, London 1912
1929

G.M. Richter, 'The "Portrait of Isabella d'Este" by Cavazzola', The Burlington Magazine, LIV/311, 1929, pp. 85-92
1951

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
1961

M. Davies, The Earlier Italian Schools, 2nd edn, London 1961
1961

U.B. Schmitt, Francesco Bonsignori, Munich 1961
1986

Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
1990

L. Campbell, Renaissance Portraits: European Portrait-Painting in the 14th, 15th and 16th Centuries, New Haven 1990
1992

J. Martineau (ed.), Andrea Mantegna (exh. cat. Royal Academy of Arts, 17 January - 5 April 1992; Metropolitan Museum of Art, 5 May - 12 July 1992), London 1992
1993

V. Terraroli (ed.), La pittura in Lombardia: Il Quattrocento, Milan 1993
1995

F. Moro, 'Antologia di artisti. Un Bonsignori ritrovato', Paragone, XLVI/539, 1995, pp. 58-63
1996

G. Freuler, '"El più bel ritracto facesse mai Magistro Francesco": Francesco Bonsignoris wiedergefundene Porträtzeichnung des dreijährigen Federico II. Gonzaga', Pantheon, LIV, 1996, pp. 50-8
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2006

S. Marinelli and P. Marini, Mantegna e le arti a Verona 1450-1500, (exh. cat. Gran Guardia, 16 September 2006 - 14 January 2007), Venice 2006
2009

G. Vangelisti, 'Sir Charles Lock Eastlake a Verona', Verona illustrata, 2009, pp. 73-106

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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