Ranuccio Farnese
Titian1541-1542
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
Washington, DC, United States
Ranuccio Farnese was 11 years old when Titian began to paint his portrait. Adult responsibility came to Ranuccio when he was still a child, as Titian brilliantly conveyed through the cloak of office, too large and heavy, sliding off the boy’s small shoulders.
When this painting was commissioned, Ranuccio had been sent to Venice by his grandfather, Pope Paul III, to become prior of an important property belonging to the Knights of Malta. A member of the powerful and aristocratic Farnese family, Ranuccio went on to an illustrious ecclesiastical career. He was made archbishop of Naples at the age of 14; by the time he was 19, he was patriarch of Constantinople and archbishop of Ravenna. He became archbishop of Milan in 1564, shortly before dying when he was only 35 years old.
Portraits by Titian were in great demand, distinguished as they were for their remarkable insight into character and their brilliant technique. Here, he limited his palette to black, white, and rose and enlivened the surface with light: the dull gleam rippling over the sleeves of the velvet cloak, the pattern flickering across the slashed doublet, and the changing reflections on the satin Maltese Cross.
Titian may have been motivated to approach this painting with particular care in the hope of securing papal patronage and work with the wealthy and influential Farneses. With the success of Ranuccio’s depiction, Titian was soon invited to paint a portrait of Paul III. His initial contacts with the papal family were followed by numerous additional Farnese commissions.
Details
- Title: Ranuccio Farnese
- Creator: Titian
- Date Created: 1541-1542
- Physical Dimensions: overall: 89.7 x 73.6 cm (35 5/16 x 29 in.) framed: 123.83 × 108.9 × 9.53 cm (48 3/4 × 42 7/8 × 3 3/4 in.)
- Provenance: Farnese family, Parma, by 1644;[1] Farnese family, Palazzo del Giardino, Parma, by 1680;[2] Farnese family, Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma, by 1708;[3] by inheritance 1734 to the Bourbon collection, Naples;[4] Bourbon collection, Palazzo di Capodimonte, Naples, by 1765;[5] Bourbon collection, Palazzo Francavilla, Naples, by 1802;[6] Bourbon collection, Palazzo degli Studi, Naples, by 1816.[7] brought from Naples to London by Sir George Donaldson [1845-1925], London;[8] sold May 1880 to Sir John Charles Robinson [1824-1913], London; sold to Sir Francis Cook, 1st bt. [1817-1901], Doughty House, Richmond, Surrey, by 1885;[9] by inheritance to his son, Sir Frederick Lucas Cook, 2nd bt. [1844-1920], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Herbert Frederick Cook, 3rd bt. [1868-1939], Doughty House; by inheritance to his son, Sir Francis Ferdinand Maurice Cook, 4th bt. [1907-1978], Doughty House, and Cothay Manor, Somerset; sold June or July 1947 to (Gualtiero Volterra, London) for (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Florence);[10] sold July 1948 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[11] gift 1952 to NGA. [1] The portrait is recorded in an inventory of the pictures in the Palazzo Farnese drawn up in 1644 as follows: “4324. Un quadro in tela con cornice grande intagliata a basso relievo et indorata, con il ritratto del S.r cardinale S. Angelo giovanetto con l’habito di Malta, mano di Titiano.” See Bertrand Jestaz, ed., _L’inventaire du Palais et des propriétés Farnèse à Rome en 1644, Vol. 3, Pt. 3: Le Palais Farnèse_, Rome, 1994: 171. It is again recorded there in an inventory of 1653: see Giuseppe Bertini, _La Galleria del Duca di Parma: Storia di una collezione_, Bologna, 1987: 89. [2] A Farnese inventory of 1680 describes the picture as follows: “Ritratto di un giovinetto vestito di rosso con sopraveste nera sopra della quale la croce di Cavaliere di Malta: tiene nella destra un guanto di _Tiziano_.” See: Amadeo Ronchini, “Delle relazioni di Tiziano coi Farnesi,” _Atti e memorie delle RR Deputazioni di Storia Patria per le Provincie Modenesi e Parmensi_ 2 (1864): 145; Giuseppe Campori, _Raccolta di cataloghi ed inventarii inediti_, Modena, 1870: 239; Giuseppe Bertini, _La Galleria del Duca di Parma: Storia di una collezione_, Bologna, 1987: 89. [3] For the Farnese inventory of 1708, see Giuseppe Bertini, _La Galleria del Duca di Parma: Storia di una collezione_, Bologna, 1987: 89. See also _Descrizione per alfabetto di cento quadri de’ più famosi, e dipinti da i più insigni pittori del modo, che si osservano nella Galleria Farnese di Parma . . ._, Parma[?], 1725: 46. [4] The Farnese collection was transferred to Naples in 1734, probably initially to the Palazzo Reale, when it was inherited by Charles of Bourbon, king of Naples. [5] Jérôme de Lalande, _Voyage d’un français en Italie fait dans les années 1765 et 1766_, 8 vols., Paris, 1769: 6:174; see also Giuseppe Sigismondo, _Descrizione della città di Napoli e suoi borghi_, 3 vols., Naples, 1788-1789: 3(1789):48. As pointed out by M. Utili (_I Farnese: Arte e collezionismo_, eds. Lucia Fornari Schianchi and Nicola Spinosa, exh. cat. Palazzo Ducale, Colorno; Galleria Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples; Haus der Kunst, Munich; Milan, 1995: 206), the picture was probably transferred from the Palazzo Reale to the Palazzo di Capodimonte as part of the reorganization of the royal collection undertaken by Padre Giovanni Maria della Torre between 1756 and 1764. [6] A. Filangieri di Candida, “La galleria nazionale di Napoli,” _Le gallerie nazionali iItaliane_ 5 (1902): 304, no. 34. As pointed out by M. Utili (see note 5), the picture is probably identical with a “ritratto di giovane di Tiziano,” carried off to Rome in 1799 by French troops, together with other pictures from the royal collection, but returned to Naples before 1802. [7] According to the inventory compiled by Paterno in 1816, quoted by M. Utili (see note 5). The picture appears to have left the Bourbon collection soon afterwards. [8] According to Tancred Borenius, Sir Francis Cook acquired the painting through Sir George Donaldson. See: Tancred Borenius, _A Catalogue of the Paintings at Doughty House, Richmond, and Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook Bt.: Italian Schools. Vol. I, Pt. 2_, ed. Herbert Cook, London, 1913: 170. [9] According to Robinson's account book (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; copy of relevant page in NGA curatorial files). Robinson, in “The Gallery of Pictures of Old Masters, formed by Francis Cook, Esq., of Richmond,” _The Art Journal_ (1885): 136, records the picture in the Cook collection, and reports that it had been “brought to England a few years ago by an Italian gentleman from Naples.” [10] See copy of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, from the Cook Collection Archive in care of John Somerville, England. Volterra was Contini Bonacossi's agent in London. For the formation and dispersal of the Cook collection, see Elon Danziger, “The Cook Collection, Its Founder and Its Inheritors,” _The Burlington Magazine_ 146 (2004): 444–458. [11] The Kress Foundation made an offer to Contini Bonacossi on 7 June 1948 for a group of twenty-eight paintings, including Titian's "Portrait of a Boy;" the offer was accepted on 11 July 1948 (see copies of correspondence in NGA curatorial files, see also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1760.).
- Medium: oil on canvas
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