Ginevra Bentivoglio
Ercole de' Robertic. 1474/1477
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Both this panel of Ginevra Bentivoglio and the companion portrait of her husband, Giovanni II Bentivoglio, also in the National Gallery of Art, were created when the family was at the height of its power. Giovanni, a major political figure in northern Italy, ruled the city of Bologna from 1463 until his expulsion for tyranny in 1506. For the most part, Ginevra Bentivoglio is unemotional, and the lifeless gaze, masklike features, and impenetrable stare reveal little of the sitter's personality.
Renaissance profile portraits recalled the images of emperors and deities on the ancient Roman coins and medals that were so highly prized at the time. Moreover, the profile format, which isolates the sitter from the observer, was particularly appropriate to Giovanni's position as a strong-willed lord.
Ercole de' Roberti absorbed Francesco del Cossa's and Cosimo Tura's eccentric style; yet he was also aware of the meticulous realism of contemporary Flemish art, as is indicated by the lustrous pearls and gems so prominently displayed on Ginevra's sleeve. But the single most salient element in Ercole's style is his superior draftsmanship. An energetic yet nervous line describes the flowing contours of Ginevra's head, the swirling concentric rhythms of her hair, and the stiff, parallel folds of her kerchief.
- Title: Ginevra Bentivoglio
- Creator: Ercole de' Roberti
- Date Created: c. 1474/1477
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 53.7 x 38.7 cm (21 1/8 x 15 1/4 in.) framed: 80 x 66 x 7.6 cm (31 1/2 x 26 x 3 in.)
- Provenance: Acquired in Italy by Louis Charles Timbal [1821-1880], Paris, before 1871;[1] sold 29 November 1872 with his collection to Gustave Dreyfus [1837-1914], Paris;[2] his estate; sold 1930 with the entire Dreyfus collection to (Duveen Brothers, Inc., London, New York, and Paris); sold May 1936 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[3] gift 1939 to NGA. [1] The painting was attributed by Timbal to Piero, according to the list of art objects sold by Timbal to Dreyfus (copy of the list in NGA curatorial files, dated 29 November 1872). A provenance from the University in Bologna, as reported by Rosemarie Molajoli, _L'opera completa di Cosmé Tura e i grandi pittor ferraresei del suo tempo: Francesco Cossa e Ercole de' Roberti_, Milan, 1974: 98, and Fern Rusk Shapley, _Catalogue of the Italian Paintings_, 2 vols., Washington, D.C., 1979: 1:407, remains undemonstrated. Nor is it convincing to identify the NGA's painting and its pendant, _Giovanni II Bentivoglio_ (NGA 1939.1.219), with likenesses mentioned by Antonio di Paolo Masini in the seventeenth century. Molajoli and Shapley (see above citations) stated that, according to Masini's _Bologna perlustrata_, Bologna, 1966: Part I, 213, there were portraits attributed to Cossa by Masini that fit the description of the NGA pair. The erroneous identification of the Gallery's portraits with those mentioned by Masini is repeated by Monica Molteni, _Ercole de' Roberti_, Milan, 1995: 129. Actually, the portraits discussed by Masini flanked the Madonna del Baraccano, an older work that Giovanni I Bentivoglio and Bente Bentivoglio had Cossa alter in the 1470s. Even supposing that Masini's passage somehow describes the NGA portraits, one must note that the male sitter is described as being eighteen years of age (far younger that Giovanni II's likeness in the NGA) and the directions the couple face do not correspond to Masini's description ("Bente vi fabricò un altare, ed a destra vi si fece ritrare al vivo in età d'anni 18 ed a sinistra la sudetta Donna, per mano del pittore Francesco Cossa..." ["Bente had an altar built there and to the right had himself portrayed at the age of 18 and at the left the earlier-mentioned woman, by the hand of Francesco Cossa"]). Furthermore, the whole passage by Masini is criticized for its inaccuracies and impossible dates by an editor of Giovanni Baruffaldi, _Vite de' pittori e scultori ferrarese_, 2 vols., Ferrara, 1844: 1:17-19. In short, there is no known provenance for the NGA's diptych from before the nineteenth century. [2] The provenance previous to 1872 is known from Fritz Harck, "Die Fresken im Palazzo Schifanoia in Ferrara," _Jb Berlin_ 5 (1884): 118; Wilhelm Bode, "Die Ausbeute aus den Magazinen der Königlichen Gemälde Galerie zu Berlin," _Jb Berlin_ 8 (1887): 126; and information on the back of a photograph in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York. [3] The Duveen Brothers letter confirming the sale of thirteen paintings and one sculpture, including NGA 1939.1.219 and .220, is dated 18 May 1936; the provenance is given as "Dreyfus Coll'n" (copy in NGA curatorial files; Box 474, Folder 5, Duveen Brothers Records, accession number 960015, Research Library, The Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles). See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/911.
- Medium: tempera on poplar panel
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