(Venice 1516–1594)
Portrait of Doge Girolamo Priuli,
oil on canvas, 88 x 68 cm, framed

Provenance:
with Agnew’s, London;
The J. Paul Getty Museum, California, acquired 1954, until 1992;
sale, Christie’s, New York, 21 May 1992, lot 35 (as Workshop of Jacopo Tintoretto);
Private European collection

Literature:
P. Wescher, I ritratti del Doge Girolamo Priuli di Jacopo Tintoretto, in: Arte veneta, 11.1957 (1958), pp. 205–207, fig. 211 (as Jacopo Tintoretto);
B. Berenson, Pitture italiane del Rinascimento. Elenco dei principali artisti e delle loro opere con un indice dei luoghi. La scuola veneta, London, 1958, p. 183 (as Jacopo Tintoretto);
C. Bernari and P. De Vecchi, L’opera completa del Tintoretto, Milan, 1970, p. 101, no. 135b (as a Workshop replica);
P. De Vecchi, L’opera completa del Tintoretto, Milano 1970, p. 101, n. 135 b (as replica di collaborazione);
B. B. Fredericksen, Catalogue of the Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Malibu, 1972, p. 40, no. 41 (as School of Jacopo Tintoretto);
P. Rossi/R. Pallucchini (eds.), Jacopo Tintoretto. L'opera completa. 1. I Ritratti, Venice, 1974, p. 113, fig. 105 (as Jacopo Tintoretto)

After Girolamo Priuli had been elected doge in 1550, Tintoretto was appointed his official portraitist. On 23rd December 1550, the artist received payment for a portrait of Priuli that is generally identified as that conserved in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Two further portraits of the doge by the hand of Tintoretto are known, including the present painting and a further version in Detroit (Institute of Arts). That the portrait of a doge has been handed down in several versions is by no means unusual and reflects a usual contemporary practice, which of course occasionally also involved a master’s workshop.

Priuli’s portraits were probably painted immediately after he had been elected doge, when the sitter was approximately 73 years old. In terms of composition, Tintoretto relied on a traditional pictorial formula for the representation of doges that also provided the basis for such paintings as Titian’s Portrait of the Doge Andrea Gritti (Washington, National Gallery).

The present painting demonstrates Tintoretto’s special ability to not only display the sitter in his official role as a church dignitary, but also as an individual. Even if the present painting, when compared to the other two versions, seems to be executed somewhat more cursorily, its slightly smaller format allows for an intimate quality that reveal’s Tintoretto’s mastery as a portraitist.

Alessandro Ballarin has confirmed an the attribution to Jacopo Tintoretto and has hypothesized that the portrait may have been executed from life as the area of the face in particular is vigorously and rapidly rendered.