(Bologna 1552–1614 Rome)
Portrait of a youthful noble with a gorget,
oil on canvas, 39 x 29 cm, framed

We are grateful to Dr Maria Teresa Cantaro and Dr Marta Privitera for confirming the attribution of the present painting based on a photograph. Comprehensive certificates are available. We are also grateful to Professor Vera Fortunati for endorsing the attribution on the basis of a photograph.

This painting is a rediscovered work by one of the most important female portraitists of the Italian Baroque period. Lavinia Fontana was a student of her father, Prospero Fontana, and her first documented works date from 1575, such as The Holy Family (Picture Gallery, Dresden). From 1577 she lived in Bologna as a renowned portraitist. Paintings from this period are the Self-Portrait with Cembalo (Accademia di San Luca, Rome) and the Portrait of Senator Orsini (Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux). Her portrait style reflects the formal approach of Central Italian models, but also reveals the naturalistic tendencies prevalent in the Northern Italian tradition. In the 16th century, portraits of children enjoyed great popularity at Italian and European courts.
While they were frequently commissioned to demonstrate the fertility of a dynasty during the first half of the century, they represented an autonomous genre in the second half. They then often functioned as votive gifts commissioned out of gratitude for the recovery from illnesses, as a memento produced because of a child’s premature death, or they were made on the occasion of an important event in the life of the depicted child. Due to its stylistic characteristics, the present portrait may be compared with a series of children’s portraits Fontana painted at the beginning of her career. All of these depict members of the Bolognese nobility, with whom the painter was in close contact. The present painting can threfore be dated to around 1580. In her extensive certificate, Dr Cantaro indicates that the painting was probably cut. As to the identity of the sitter, she has suggested this young man may be a member of the Bolognese patrician family, Bianchini.