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studiesinconnoisseurship · 2 years

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Young Man at Dulwich

Portrait of a Young Man (attrib Piero di Cosimo) - Dulwich Picture Gallery

One of the smallest exhibits at the Dulwich College Picture Gallery in South London is this head and shoulders portrait of a Young Man, cut, it appears, from a larger painting. It has been ascribed in the past to Raphael and currently to Piero di Cosimo, but neither attribution is very convincing. While not in a hurry to give a name to the painter of this picture, I think it is certainly possible to find other work that is plausibly by him.

A Man in Armour (attrib Master of Frankfurt) - unkown location

A Spring Exhibition held at the Leonard Koetser Gallery (Flemish, Dutch and Italian Old Masters) in 1968 included this Man in Armour, attributed, I am not sure why, to the Master of Frankfurt. Set this beside the Young Man at Dulwich, and there seems to be a remarkable likeness between the two youthful faces, their Southern, even olive, complexion, their features, their hair. What they also share, chromatically, is a combination of cloudless (or near-cloudless) blue sky and a red in the costume.

Portrait of Giovanni Gaddi wearing a black cap, Florentine School C16th

The red at Dulwich has become more crimson in the tunic of another young man, Giovanni Gaddi , wearing a black cap, in a picture sold by Sothebys in London, 15 December, 2012, Lot 18.

St George, ex Marquess of Lothian (attrib Domenico Ghirlandaio)

A fourth Young Man, in a picture from the Marquess of Lothian’s collection sports a tunic even more floridly decorative than that of the Man in Armour.

Head of a Youth (attrib Raphael) -Uffizi Gabinetto - can be compared to the Young Man at Dulwich

At this point it is helpful to introduce a drawing from the Uffizi Gabinetto, not by Raphael but arguably by this Dulwich artist. Two more Young men conform to the type now established by the drawing and paintings cited.

Portrait of a Man in Armour (poss attrib Francesco Granacci) - National Gallery London

Although the red is absent, I can well believe that a bearded young Warrior portrayed with the Piazza Signoria in the background, in this painting at the National Gallery in London is also by the same artist. Clearly he loved a blue sky, loved armour, and loved youth. Unsurprisingly, when he painted the Archangel Michael he made him a young man with a fantastical plumed headdress.The Dulwich face reappears in the heads of both Tobias and Angel in a picture of that subject sold by Christies (25 march 1927 Lot 164).

Left: The Archangel Michael (attrib Igegno) Right: Tobias and the Angel - both locations unknown

Close-up comparisons of the faces from the two paintings with that of the Young Man at Dulwich

The Dulwich artist did not only paint young men; there is a photo at the Witt Library (from the archive of The Burlington Magazine) of a Head of a Woman who has the eyes and mouth and other features now familiar.

A painting of a Head of a Woman attributed to Pontormo and featured in Burlington Magazine - location unkown

With reasonable confidence other paintings and drawings can be adduced, including the four paintings below. With time faces and hands have become longer, backgrounds more mountainous, drapery more dramatically flowing, but the same clear eyes and direct gaze remain.

Left: St James the Greater and Right: The Personification of Friendship - both locations uncertain

Left: San Martino and the Poor Man (attr Circle of Raphael) - Museo Civico Amadeo Lia, La Spezia and Right: Man Playing a Lute (attr Bacchiacca) - Kress Delgado Museum of Art

I pause in any case, to leave further research to identify more of this artist’s oeuvre, which in that period would have included more in the way of religious works. Something of his character as a portraitist has emerged for me, and is attractive, if not especially original, in its depiction of young men. Here are two more: one from the Johnson Collection at Philadelphia and another, of unknown location that harks back to Dulwich.

Left: Portrait of a Young Gentleman Before a Landscape (various attrib) and Right: Portrait of a Young Man (attrib Aspertini) - location unkown

For us, for the moment, the historical importance of this artist may lie in his portraiture, because in that department his gifts were sufficiently recognised in his day that he was able to paint not only his ruler, Lorenzo de Medici, but also Machiavelli, with whose portrait this Study concludes. That signature red comes back again.

Left: A painting of Niccolo Machiavelli (attrib Santo di Tito) uses the signature red colour as found in the Dulwich portrait

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