Italian, 'Portrait of a Young Man', 19th century
About the work
Overview
This portrait was bequeathed to the National Gallery as a work by the fifteenth-century Florentine painter Pietro Pollaiuolo; its former owners were unaware that it is in fact a nineteenth-century forgery.
Whoever painted it was clearly trying to imitate fifteenth-century Florentine portraiture; it might have been intended to pass as a Botticelli. The dark background, the costume and the hairstyle do indeed resemble our portrait of a young man painted by Botticelli in the 1480s. The reverse was even painted to make it look like marble – a decorative effect often found on Renaissance portraits, intended to recall marble tombs and, so, the frailty of life.
Botticelli was a hugely popular artist in the late nineteenth century, when he was rediscovered and celebrated by art critics. The painter of this picture might have made it to take advantage of tourists to Italy and their desire for pictures by the artist.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Portrait of a Young Man
- Artist
- Italian
- Date made
- 19th century
- Medium and support
- egg tempera on wood
- Dimensions
- 55.9 × 43.8 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bequeathed by the Misses Cohen as part of the John Samuel collection, 1906
- Inventory number
- NG2084
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
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.
Bibliography
-
1951Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, London 1951
-
1986Davies, Martin, National Gallery Catalogues: The Earlier Italian Schools, revised edn, London 1986
-
2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
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.
Images
More works by Italian
