Giovanni Battista Gaulli (Baciccio), 'Portrait of Cardinal Marco Gallo', 1681-3

In 1681, Marco Gallo was made a cardinal by Pope Innocent X, having served as Bishop of Rimini in northern Italy from 1659. He died two years later, in 1683. In this portrait he wears a vivid red cardinal’s biretta on his head and a silk mozzetta (short cape) with a neat line of buttons.

Even though Gallo must have been around 60 years old in this portrait he appears remarkably youthful. His gaze is direct and his expression stern. Gaulli, also known as Baciccio, captured his greying hair and wispy beard, as well as a slight sense of jowliness, but this is a sympathetic portrait of a sensitive, contemplative man. His face is radiant in the bright light, the flesh tones beautifully modelled. Warm colouring gives him a rosy complexion. Gaulli has imitated the shimmering silk robe through his subtle use of light pinks to deep reds and with carefully applied brushstrokes that create a beautiful iridescence and volume.

The identity of the sitter and the attribution to Gaulli is inscribed on Blondeau’s engraving made after the painting and published in Rome in 1751. A native of Genoa, Gaulli spent most of his career in Rome during the latter part of the seventeenth century. Like his mentor, the sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Gaulli preferred his sitters to chat and move about while being studied. Gaulli’s work is influenced by Bernini’s sculptural approach: in the lower part of this painting, the drapery seems to emulate a sculpted bust in the rigid form of the sitter’s silhouette and the stiff, angular folds of the fabric.

Gaulli painted many illustrious sitters, including seven popes and a large number of cardinals, but few of his works are known today. This is certainly among the most accomplished of his known portraits and is one of very few works in a British collection.