1512 Oil on panel, 73 x 58 cm Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome Earlier this picture was described as a work of Leonardo. Later, the panel was attributed to Holbein. Finally, of exceptionally high quality, the painting was given to Bartolomeo Veneto by comparing it to two other portraits by the same painter, now at Houston and Washington. The proposed dating is the second decade of the sixteenth century (perhaps 1512), in the wake of Bartolomeo's sojourn in Ferrara between 1506 and 1508. Bartolomeo Veneto (Bartolommeo Veneziano) attracted attention at the end of the 19th century. He was a pupil of Gentile Bellini, he worked at the Court of the Grand Duke of Ferrara and elsewhere. There he came under the influence of LOmbard artists. The artist enriched his original Venetian pictorial language with direct exposure to the influence of Albrecht D?rer, who had been active in Venice in the first years of the sixteenth century. The figures of the knight and the soldier, visible in the background, are literally copied from a 1496 woodcut by D?rer. The identity of the sitter, however, remains a mystery. We do know, however, that he must have been a gentleman attached to the Mantuan court of the Gonzagas. Recently, it was suggested that Bartolomeo Veneto may have been the talented portraitist working in Raphael's workshop who was responsible for the faces of the chair-bearers in the Vatican Palace's Mass of Bolsena. Several inscriptions are legible in the painting: on the medal of the sitter's beret is written "Probasti e Chognovisti"; on the placard above the animal on the medal are the Greek letters epsilon and tau; and along the edge of the plaquette that decorates the sword handle, "IN(?) B:VF" and "NO SPI(E)".Artist:BARTOLOMEO VENETO Title: Portrait of a Gentleman Painted in 1501-1550 , Italian - - painting : portrait
Painting ID:: 63841
Bartholomeus van der Helst 1653(1653)
Medium oil on canvas
Dimensions 111.2 x 95.1 cm
cyf Portrait of a Gentleman 1613-1670
Dutch
Bartholomeus Van Der Helst Galleries
Dutch painter. He was the son of a Haarlem inn-keeper and presumably undertook part or all of his training in Amsterdam. His earliest works suggest that the painter Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy was his master. Although van der Helst had probably already established himself as an independent master by the time he married Anna du Pire in Amsterdam in 1636, his earliest known work, a portrait of The Regents of the Walloon Orphanage, Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Maison Descartes), dates from 1637. Stylistically it is close to the work of Pickenoy. His portrait of a Protestant Minister of 1638 (Rotterdam, Boymans-van Beuningen) reveals the influence of Rembrandt. The young artist must have risen rapidly to fame in Amsterdam, for as early as 1639 he received the prestigious commission for a large painting for the Kloveniersdoelen (Arquebusiers or Musketeers Hall): The Civic Guard Company of Capt. Roelof Bicker and Lt Jan Michielsz. Blaeuw (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), which formed part of the same series as Rembrandt Night Watch (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.). Van der Helst may not have completed this commission until 1642 or 1643. The ingenious arrangement of the figures in a broad composition shows the artist special talent for composing large groups. Pickenoy influence is less noticeable here than in the portrait of 1637; the self-assured poses of the individual figures were to become a characteristic feature of van der Helst work. The successful execution of this portrait established van der Helst reputation: from 1642, when he began to receive an increasing number of commissions for individual portraits, until 1670 he was the leading portrait painter of the ruling class in Amsterdam. From 1642 his technique in portrait painting gradually became more fluent and the rendering of costume materials more detailed. Some typical portraits of his earlier period are those of Andries Bicker (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), his wife Catharina Gansneb Tengnagel (Dresden, Gemeldegal. Alte Meister) and their son Gerard Bicker (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), all of 1642, and the Portrait of a Young Girl (1645; London, N.G.). In 1648 van der Helst painted a second civic guard portrait, The Celebration of the Peace of M?nster at the Crossbowmen Headquarters, Amsterdam (Amsterdam, Rijksmus.), a superbly composed and well painted portrait that, until the late 19th century, was considered one of the masterpieces of the Golden Age but later lost popularity because of its smooth and modish execution. It can nevertheless still be regarded as one of the most important group portraits of the 17th century. Its technical perfection, characterized by a well-modelled rendering of the figures and a smooth handling of the brush, dominated the rest of van der Helst oeuvre.
