Monday, September 26, 2016

European Likenesses of the 16th century

Corneille de Lyon
Portrait of a man
ca. 1545-50
National Gallery, London

Corneille de Lyon
Portrait of a man holding a glove
ca. 1550
National Gallery, London

Corneille de Lyon
Portrait of a man wearing a biretta
mid-16th century
National Gallery, London

"The documents prove that he [Corneille de Lyon] was of Dutch origin and was born in The Hague, that he was painter to the Dauphin, later Henry II, from 1540 onwards, and that he was naturalized French in1547. In 1551 the Venetian ambassador, Giovanni Capelli, describes a visit to his studio, where he saw little portraits of all the members of the French Court. After the death of Henry II he continued in favour with his successors. He abjured Protestantism and joined  the Roman Church in 1569, and the last record of him dates from 1574." 

Corneille de Lyon's portraits are "characterized by their small size, their sensitive naturalistic modelling in a northern manner, and usually by a green background. We have no evidence of the artist's early training, but there is nothing in Dutch portraiture at the time to suggest that he learnt his art in his own country. Closer links can perhaps be seen with Antwerp, more precisely with Joos van Cleve, whose portraits, though larger in scale, have very much the same modelling in thin glazes which give variety of light and texture to the features rather than plasticity."

 Anthony Blunt, Art and Architecture in France 1500-1700, 5th edition revised by Richard Beresford (Yale University Press, 1999)

François de Montmorency
Portrait of Corneille de Lyon
ca.. 1557
Clark Art Institute

Lucas Cranach the Elder
Samson & Delilah
ca. 1528-30
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Juan de Juanes
Knight of the Order of Santiago
ca. 1560
Prado

Juan de Juanes
Ecce Homo
ca. 1570
Prado

Anonymous Italian painter
Personification of the Theological Virtue of Hope
ca. 1500
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anonymous Italian painter
Personification of the Theological Virtue of Faith
ca. 1500
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli (Giampetrino)
Diana the Huntress
ca. 1530-50
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Curators at the Met describe Giampietrino (above) as, "among the most faithful Milanese pupils of Leonardo da Vinci. This picture, which shows the goddess of the hunt drawing an arrow, is inspired by one of a famous set of engravings designed by the Florentine Rosso Fiorentino (1484-1540) and dated 1526." 

Francesco d'Ubertino Verdi (Bachiacca)
Leda & the Swan
16th century
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Adriaen Key
Portrait of the Thomasz Family
1583
Prado

Curators at the Prado tell us that Adriaen Key's portrait (above) records the features of a prosperous Flemish father and his six children, crowding the picture-space as if to express the intimate proximity of family life. The wife and mother's death is suggested both by her absence and by the vanitas arrangement that apparently stands as her proxy at lower right.

Giambologna
Allegory of Francesco I de'Medici
1560-61
alabaster relief
Prado

Anonymous Italian artist working in Verona
Triumph of Titus
early 16th century
drawing
British Museum