Portrait of a Cardinal, said to be Cardinal Marcello Cervini degli Spannocchi (Copy after a Tuscan 16th Century, possibly by Pontormo)
Description:
Oil on canvas, 50.5 x 40.3 cm. Inscribed ‘Pontormo’ upper right.
Location:
Private Collection, Switzerland.
Provenance:
Mrs. Rene Blaser-Müller, Lucerne, Switzerland to 2010.
The original picture is in the Galleria Borghese in Rome (canvas 1.03 x 0.86m). The sitter was Cardinal from 1539 and Pope from 1555 as Marcello II.
The artist must have made this smaller copy during his stay in Rome in 1883 or early 1884. It is visible in the photograph of his studio at The Sherwood, 58, West 57th Street, taken in 1894, and in the photograph of the library in the Atelier Building, 33, West 67th Street, New York, taken in 1905.
