Portrait of Ermolao Barbaro

The nucleus of portraits hanging today at the Pinacoteca civica consists of 39 paintings, depicting illustrious men of history, which Paolo Giovio collected probably from before 1521, the only certain date for the beginning of the collection, until his death in 1552. They were intended to be exhibited in the destroyed Villa Museo in Borgovico. These original paintings came into the civic collections in the second half of the last century through the bequests of Rovelli and Acchiappati, who were distant heirs of Paolo Giovio. It has not always been possible to trace the authorship of the works, since Giovio rarely mentioned them in his writings and acquired them through his friends and acquaintances scattered throughout Europe. The quality of the portraits themselves is thus certainly not homogeneous, as Giovio’s only interest was certainty of the truthfulness of the physiognomy. (B. Fasola)