Lavinia Fontana

(Bologna 1552–1614 Rome)
Portrait of Raffaele Riario,
inscribed on the letter: Da Monaco a¯ xvj. d. Gen.r, 15…/A piacr.s Vrt.s /Il Duca di Baviera/S.r Riari,
oil on canvas, 161 x 123.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Riario Sforza collection, Rome;
sale, Minerva, Rome, 23 May 2017, lot 34 (as Lombard School, late 16th Century);
where acquired by the present owner

We are grateful to Daniele Benati for suggesting the attribution to Lavinia Fontana on the basis of a high resolution digital photograph.
We are grateful to Maria Teresa Cantaro for independently confirming the attribution to Lavinia Fontana after examining the present painting in the original and for her help in cataloguing this lot.

A standing man is represented in this painting, he is seen in three quarter view within a space filled by a table covered with a red velvet drape, and a green velvet curtain with a gold tasselled fringe that fills the upper right corner with its luminously reflective folds. The sitter wears an elegant black velvet suit worked with silken geometric relief panes throughout. His ruffled white cotton cuffs and collar interrupt the sober colour scheme of his suit set against the dark ground.

The dry narrative style, the fine design and the delicate handling of colour and chiaroscuro, as well as the work’s overall composition are, according to Cantaro, typical of Lavinia Fontana’s male portraits where she adopts a representational formal rigour that leaves no room for superfluous description, but rather concentrates on reproducing the essence of the sitter’s features and social status.

Indeed, in this painting such compositional formula are deployed to define the subject and his rank. This work should be compared to portraits executed by Lavinia Fontana between 1577 and 1601: these represent senators, knights, scholars, churchmen and noblemen (see: M. T. Cantaro, Lavinia Fontana “pittora singolare”, Roma 1989, pp. 75,83-85, 90-91, 106-108, 104, 131-133, 169-170, 176-177, 203-204; C. Murphy, Lavinia Fontana. A painter and her Patrons in Sixtheenth-century Bologna, New Haven-London 2003, pp. 59-70). The present painting is especially comparable to those executed during the 1580s, such as the signed Portrait of the so-called Orsini Senator which is datable to after 1577 and is preserved in the Musée des Beaux Arts, Bordeaux.

The gentleman represented in the present painting holds an open letter in his right hand. The first lines of the letter reveal glyphs that suggest cursive script, but which have no meaning at all. However, in the last three lines we can read the letter writer’s signature, that is of the Duke of Bavaria, the place Munich, and the initial part of a date, as well as the recipient’s surname, which shows him to have belonged to the Riario family.

Represented on the table to the right of the painting is a finely engraved brass and silver gilt pocket watch, which was evidently a very rare item, being one of the first portable mechanical clocks manufactured in south Germany during the last quarter of the sixteenth century. Depicted on the same table there is also a fine lacework pendant or case on which the symbol of the Jesuit order, IHS, can be read: almost certainly a reference that was relevant to both Riario and the Duke of Bavaria. Moreover, a silver chain is neatly gathered up and attached with a hook to the sitter’s suit, at the centre of which is a lilied cross of red coral, with the lower vertical branch terminating in the form of a sword point, the symbol of the Cavalieri di San Giacomo della Spada [Knights of Saint James of the Sword].

This final detail has persuaded Cartaro that the individual represented in the present painting is the nobleman and senator Raffaele Riario, who was the only member of the Bolognese branch of the family to be made a Knight of Saint James of the Sword. Brother to the better-known Cardinal Alessandro (1543-1585), Raffaele Riario was a commander of the Spanish infantry in 1571, he was made a knight of the Order of Saint James of the Sword in 1584 and Senator of Bologna in 1585, finally, he was appointed the Papal Ambassador to that same city in 1591. He died in 1592. Moreover, Raffaele was a friend of Lavinia Fontana since at least 1589, when he was the godparent at the baptism of her ninth child, Prospero, alongside the wife of Count Giulio Pepoli. This fact is revealed by the Lista di baptismo [baptismal list] compiled by Lavinia’s husband, Giampaolo Zappi, which is preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale di Imola (see: M. T. Cantaro, Ibid., 1989, pp. 104-105 and C.P. Murphy, Ibid., 2003, pp. 63, 91, 171). The Duke of Bavaria, whose signature appears on the letter in the portrait, is in all likelihood William V (1548-1626), called the Pious. He was duke from 1579 to 1597 and was buried in the Jesuit church of Saint Michael in Munich, which he himself had commissioned to be built between 1583 and 1597. William received a religious education from the Jesuits with whom he remained in contact, also favouring their establishment in Bavaria. Ties between the Riario family and the Dukes of Bavaria date back to February 1530 when the latter were the guests of the Riario family in Bologna during the coronation of Charles V. It is likely that from this time onwards, the two families remained in contact.

Lavinia Fontana probably executed the present painting on the occasion of a special event that involved both Raffaele Riario and Duke William V of Bavaria. It was certainly made after Riario’s nomination as a Knight of Saint James of the Sword, and was likely related to the building of the church of Saint Michael in Munich, given the clear reference in the painting to the Jesuit order. The painting can therefore be dated to between 1584 and 1589 – the year Lavinia Fontana’s bond with Riario was especially strengthened.