(Florence 1510–1573 Rome)
Portrait of a man,
oil on panel, 56.5 x 43 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Frederick Mont, New York;
sale, Dorotheum, Vienna, 17 September 1974, lot 132;
Private colletion, Vienna

Literature:
J. P. Richter, The Mond Collection, London, 1910, vol. III, p. 481;
L. Mortari, Francesco Salviati, Rome, 1992, p. 161, no. 187 (as attributed to Salviati)

We are grateful to Professor Elizabeth Pilliod for confirming the attribution of the present painting on the basis of a digital photograph.

The sitter in the present portrait wears a black heavy cloth saio, (a coat with very full shoulders, which covered the figure to the knee). The saio was a very popular article of male dress during the first half of the Sixteenth Century, but it faded from use in the second half of the century. The fabric, likely made of wool, is accotonato, an effect created by rubbing the fabric after has been woven. The resulting texture of tiny knobs of wool that stand out across the surface of the cloth, is especially accented in this portrait along the perimeter of the man’s shoulders, as the knobs stand out in relief against the dusky olive background. A similar effect is found in Bronzino’s Man with a Lute (Florence, Uffizi, circa 1530). The black hat is a common type similar to that in Bronzino’s Portrait of Lorenzo Lenzi, (Milan, Castello Sforzesco), but the slightly elongated collar points suggest a slightly later date, perhaps as late as 1550. Although one cannot yet be certain, the sitter is likely to be a Florentine.

According to Professor Elizabeth Pilliod the sitter in the present portrait appears to be the same man Salviati painted holding a statuette (Portrait of a Goldsmith, private collection). In addition to the colour of the skin and hair, the subjects appears to share numerous identical facial features: low, flat eyebrows; a slight bump along the ridge of the nose about halfway down its length; a wide end to the nose; rather thick lips; and a heavily drooping mustache. The statuette held by the man in the portrait in the private collection suggests that he, and by extension the man in the present portrait, is a goldsmith. It should be noted that the thread-like tendrils of the statue’s hair are so delicate that it is doubtful that they could be duplicated in any sculptural medium. Instead her wispy billowing hair and animated pose attest to this goldsmith’s ability to create something even more animated, even more alive, than reality. Such a compliment from one artist to another, and the fact that the same goldsmith appears in two portraits by Salviati, likely attest to a close friendship between Salviati and the goldsmith. Vasari mentions several friends of Salviati who were goldsmiths, but among these candidates it would seem difficult to determine which one is depicted in this portrait.

Mortari, the only scholar to have commented on relationship between the two pictures found them to be close in style, but the present work ‘weaker’ (see literature). While the present picture does not seem to have the tiny strokes of highlighted gold in the subject’s beard that are found in the private collection version, he instead has slightly more grey in his beard and is perhaps older. Other than this detail, the two portraits of the goldsmith are closely comparable, especially in the intensity of the man’s gaze, and in details such as the manner in which the white linen collars are painted.

The present painting was originally owned by Frederick Mont, a New York art dealer. Mont was born in Moravia as Adolf Fritz Mondschein and he was an associate of the Sanct Lucas Gallery in Vienna, specialized in Old Master paintings. In 1938 the gallery was arianized and Mondschein emigrated in 1939 to New York, where he changed his name to Frederick Mont. He primarily sold Old Masters to American museums and also worked as an agent for the Princes of Liechtenstein when they wished to sell works from their collection. He died in New York as an America citizen in 1968.

An alternative attribution to Michele Tosini, Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio (Florence 1503–1577) has been suggested. We are grateful to Professor Elizabeth Pilliod for her help in cataloguing the present painting.