Portrait of Fortunato Martinengo Cesaresco

Portrait of Fortunato Martinengo Cesaresco is a 1542 oil on canvas painting by Moretto da Brescia, now in the National Gallery, London. The use of X-ray photography during a 1973 restoration showed a table in front of the man with an open book on it.

History

The earliest mention of the work is in a mid 19th-century inventory of count Teodoro Lechi's collection - the family archives add that he acquired the work in Brescia on 19 September 1843 and on 9 January 1854 sold it on to Charles Henfrey of Turin, where Lechi was exiled from 1849 to 1859. In 1975 Cecil Gould cited documents in the National Gallery stating that in 1843 countess Marzia Martinengo Cesaresco had sold the painting to Lechi, who had married her daughter Clara. It passed from Henfry to Otto Mündler in 1856 and two years later was acquired by its present owner.