(Argenta, Ferrara c. 1510-1573 Turin)
Portrait of Vittoria Farnese (1521–1602), three quarter length,
signed and dated lower right: IACOBUS ARGENTA F. MDLXVI,
oil on canvas, 120 x 94.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

The present painting is a rare example of the Ferrarese artist’s work which is signed and dated 1566, chronologically placing the painting before the death of the sitter’s husband Guidobaldo in 1574. Vittoria Farnese married Guidobaldo II Della Rovere, duke of Urbino in 1548. She is dressed in black with a light veil over her head and a stiff collar: a form of dress that conforms to the Catholic Counter-reformation style. A gold pendant with a large stone hangs down to the chest and from the fabric belt hangs a rosary with beads of rock crystal.

The physiognomy of the sitter is consistent with those of other portraits of Vittoria Farnese. The medallion, placed in a little wooden box, also provides proof of identification of the sitter. The bust of a man in monochrome is surrounded by the following inscription: GVI[D]V[B]AL[DVS] II VRBINI DVX.IIII. A later copy of this painting executed by Camilla Guerrieri is in Pesaro, Musei Civici.

The present painting is probably the prototype of a series of portraits, originally in Pesaro, of similar format and suggests that the composition enjoyed some iconographic fortune. A similar work is cited in the inventory of the ducal Guardaroba in 1623-1624: 'Quadri uno retratto di Madama Ser(enissi)ma mentre era Duch(ess)a con una corona in mano et uno scattolino col retratto del sig(no)r d(uc)a Guido Baldo' (see F. Sangiorgi, Documenti urbinati. Inventari del Palazzo Ducale (1582-1631), Urbino 1976, p. 348).

Giacomo Vighi gained his pseudonym from his place of birth Argenta, near Ferrara. He was an appreciated painter of portraits, active first for the Este family. He is recorded in 1555 when working in the castle of Ferrara on two portraits of princes or princesses of d’Este in a loggia of the tower of Santa Caterina (L. N. Cittadella, Notizie Amministrative, Storiche, Artistiche Relative a Ferrara, Ferrara 1868, p. 148). Afterwards he became court portraitist for the Savoy family (1561-1573), traveling throughout Europe – to France, Spain, Bohemia and Saxony. He also bought paintings for the Savoy collection (today partly conserved in the Galleria Sabauda in Turin).

We are grateful to Paolo Bertelli for his help in cataloguing the present painting.