Portrait of Giacomo di Andrea Dolfin


Portrait of Giacomo di Andrea Dolfin, formerly known only as Portrait of a Man, is an oil painting by the Venetian master Titian, made about 1531. It is part of the collection of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, though not currently on display.

Subject

The sitter was identified as Giacomo di Andrea Dolfin by Charles Hope in 1982, based on the partially legible inscription on the letter held in the subject's right hand, which is addressed to himself. Philip Conisbee, in 1991, gave the following decipherment: "Al Cl … mo Giacomo delfin / M... co D... Prvi / a Vrcinovi ". Dolfin is probably being referred to as provveditore at Orzinuovi, which position he is known to have occupied in 1531 and 1532. Titian shows him garbed in the costly burgundy robes of a Venetian magistrate.

History

Copy

There is an old copy of the painting in the collection of the Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena, entitled Portrait of a Venetian Nobleman, which is thought to be either a studio version or a later copy by Titian himself. As revealed by x-ray analysis, the copy was painted over another fully finished and cut-down portrait of a bearded, seated figure which was probably by another hand.
The painting was acquired by Joseph Duveen in 1928 and published in a German catalogue by Wilhelm Suida in 1939. It includes a type of cloth hanging or unfolded curtain behind the figure of Dolfin. The same type of cloth hanging was once in the original portrait but proved to be a later addition and was removed during a conservation effort in 1980.

Provenance