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Date : near 1532
Material : Oil on canvas
Acquisition : Charles H. and Mary F.S. Worcester Fund (1929)
| Item 10 on 16
European Painting
Painting
Area related
Italy
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| Description |  |
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One of the most accomplished portrait painters of the sixteenth century, Moroni was a pupil of Moretto da Brescia (see nearby painting). Moroni spent several years in Trent while a council of the Catholic Church met there to decide on measures to counter the Reformation. During the council, Moroni obtained the commission to execute portraits of two members of the family of the Prince-Bishop of Trent, Cardinal Cristoforo Madruzzo. The subject of the Art Institute's portrait has been identified, on the basis of a contemporary bronze medallion, as the Cardinal's nephew Gian Lodovico Madruzzo. He would succeed his uncle as Prince - Bishop of Trent in 1567. Moroni's other portrait, of Gian Lodovico's elder brother, is in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. These two pictures were modeled on Titian's earlier "Portrait of Cardinal Madruzzo" (1552), which is now in the Museu de Arte de Sao Paulo, Brazil.
The portrait of Gian Lodovico is in the style of Moroni's early maturity; the artist, influenced by the work of Moretto and Titian, places his subject against a monochrome, gray background. In presenting the sitter as a full - length figure standing on a patterned floor with a looped curtain over his shoulder, Moroni also echoes recent portrait practice in Germany. The austerity of Madruzzo's priestly garments is relieved by the lively flooring and the informality of the large brown - and - white dog at his side.
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