| Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese | |
|---|---|
FXD.jpg) | |
| Artist | Titian |
| Year | c. 1545 – 46 |
| Medium | oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 97 cm × 73 cm (38 in × 29 in) |
| Location | Museo di Capodimonte,Naples |
Portrait of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese is ac. 1545–46 oil on canvas three-quarter-length portrait ofAlessandro Farnese the Younger (1520–1589) byTitian. It is held in theMuseo di Capodimonte, inNaples.[1]
Its subject is shown in front of a green curtain, wearing a cardinal's robes and holding gloves in his right hand (an accessory more usual in portraits of gentlemen and noblemen than of clerics).[2][1] His depiction here is similar to that inPope Paul III and His Grandsons, placing the two works close together in date.[1]
No surviving sources mention how, when or by whom the work was commissioned.[1] Its subject was a major patron of the arts and the main intermediary between Titian and theFarnese family, first commissioningPortrait of Ranuccio Farnese from him, showing Alessandro's younger brother, thenPortrait of Pope Paul III and finally aDanaë for his own private rooms.[1] Titian was then summoned to the papal court in Rome, where he probably received and fulfilled the commission for a portrait of Alessandro, who had in 1534 been made cardinal of Sant'Angelo in Foro Piscium, aged only fourteen, byPope Paul III.[1] On the work's reverse is a grey wax seal showing theFarnese family lily, the original inventory number "66" and the inscription "C.S.ANGLO", referring to thetitulus the subject was granted on being made a cardinal.[1]
The 1641 and 1644 inventories of thePalazzo Farnese in Rome mentions the work, which from 1663 went with all the other Titians in the Farnese collection to theDuchy of Parma and Piacenza.[3] Whilst in Emilio it was mentioned in a catalogue as a 'three-quarter length portrait on canvas of the cardinal of Sant'Angelo', attributed to Titian and given the catalogue number 66.[3] Like all the other Titians in the Farnese collection, it was then mentioned in the inventories of thePalazzo del Giardino inParma in 1680 before being selected as one of the works "worthy" of being moved to the new galleries at thepalazzo della Pilotta, also in Parma.[3] A copy by an artist in Titian's circle was recorded at thePalazzo Farnese in Rome (inv. n. 33) before following a similar trajectory to the original work, being recorded at the Palazzo del Giardino in Parma (inv. n. 228), then at the Palazzo della Pilotta in Parma (inv. n. 290), then in Naples and finally in theReggia di Caserta, where it now hangs.
In 1734 the original work and the rest of theFarnese Collection were inherited by the family's last heirElisabetta Farnese, who then passed it to her sonCharles – it was thus moved with much of the collection in Emilio to Naples.[3] It was looted by French troops in 1799 during their establishment of theParthenopean Republic.Ferdinand IV sent Domenico Venuti to search for works of art taken from Naples as well as new additions to his collections. Venuti found the portrait in Rome in 1800 awaiting shipment to France and reclaimed it, though on its return to Naples it was hung not at Capodimonte but thepalazzo di Francavilla.[3] This meant that it stayed in Naples for the ten years of French rule from 1805 onwards, unlike the other Titians from his collection which Ferdinand took with him on fleeing toPalermo.[3]
It was then recorded as hanging in Naples'Palazzo Reale until 1831, when it returned to the new Real Museo Borbonico in the Palazzo degli Studi (which now houses theNational Archaeological Museum, Naples), where it was referred to as a "portrait of Cardinal Santangelo holding gloves, by Tiziano Vecellio".[3] At the end of the 19th century some critics doubted it was an autograph work by Titian due to the poor state of preservation into which it had fallen, but conservation work in the 1990s has restored the original pigments, including the green curtain and the glow on the left of the work, showing them to be completely in harmony with works definitely produced during Titian's brief stay in Rome.[1]