P. Rylands, Palma il Vecchio: L' opera completa, Milan 1988, p. 229, cat. no. 60, reproduced; P. Rylands, Palma Vecchio, English edition, Cambridge and New York 1992, p. 203, cat. no. 60, reproduced.
Provenance
Traditionally thought to have been in the sitter's family, Onigo, and hanging in their family palazzo in Treviso, until 1904 (according to the 1916 sale catalogue); Lania collection, Treviso, 1904 (as Pordenone); L.A. Biddle Esq., Philadelphia, by 1905; Prof. Commendatore Elia Volpi (1858-1939), Villa Pia, Florence, by 1914; By whom sold, New York, American Art Galleries, Plaza Hotel, November 27, 1916, lot 1008, to Thompson; W.B. Thompson; With Wildenstein & Co., New York, by April 1959; Anonymous sale, New York, Christie's, November 14, 1979, lot 112 (as 'attributed to Palma il Vecchio'); Art market, New York (according to Rylands, 1988 and 1992).
Notes
Until Rylands' monograph of 1988 this portrait was only known from the 1979 sale catalogue where it had been erroneously classified as 'attributed to' Palma il Vecchio. (1) Rylands set the record straight and, though knowing the portrait only from photographs, removed any doubt as to the painting's authorship stating that it was by Palma. (2) The painting is a fine example of Palma Vecchio's portraiture; one of the two genres in which the artist excelled (the other was the 'sacra conversazione' for which Palma created a market that was inherited by Bonifacio de' Pitati). Although Palma is principally remembered, in the realm of portraiture, for his sensual and idealised portraits of women or courtesans, male portraits also form a not insignificant part of his oeuvre.
No attributes assist us in identifying the gentleman depicted, though his fur-lined costume denotes his wealthy status. In the 1916 sale catalogue he was identified as Aurelio Onigo, the son of the Roman senator Augustin Onigo, a wealthy patron of the arts. The painting apparently remained in the family and hung in their palace in Treviso, 'as a highly regarded treasure', until 1904. By family tradition the painting was ascribed to Giorgione but the attribution and identification both seem to be without any real foundation. The gentleman holds a book in his gloved right hand and wears a ring on the index finger of his left, whilst clutching his other glove. This motif is very much borrowed from Titian who, by giving his sitters a glove or a book to hold, managed to infuse life into what would otherwise have been a rather static pose. (3) Indeed the fact that the sitter's body is slightly turned away from the viewer but his face looks out, lends the figure a gentle and life-like sense of movement. Here Palma's sitter stands before a niche -- a thoroughly Venetian characteristic -- similar to that in his Portrait of a Gentleman, traditionally thought to be Francesco Querini in the Pinacoteca Querini-Stampalia, Venice. (4) Both portraits date from the 1520s, though Rylands dates the present work to the first half of the decade and the Querini-Stampalia painting to the second. Contemporary with these works is Palma's Portrait of a Man in the John G. Johnson collection, Philadelphia Musem of Art, dated by Rylands to 1520-25 and characteristic of both the artist and Venetian portraiture in general. (5)
Tassi (1793) -- as well as Crowe and Cavalcaselle after him (1912) -- recorded the existence of a portrait by Palma il Vecchio in the collection of the Conte Lana in Brescia, apparently seen there by Averoldi in the late 19th century. The fact that Rylands lists the early provenance of the present portrait as Lania collection, Treviso, led him to suppose that there might be a connection between the two, though this seems not to be the case. (6)
The painting's 20th-century provenance is less problematic. It belonged to the renowned Florentine art dealer Elia Volpi, famous for his purchase and restoration of the Palazzo Davanzati in Florence in 1904. Volpi opened the building to the public six years later, attracting foreign visitors by promoting it as a private museum 'della Casa Fiorentina antica'. In 1900 Volpi also purchased Villa Monteripaldi in Florence and re-named it Villa Pia, after his wife Pia Lori. He spent the last years of his life there but the contents of the villa, together with those of Palazzo Davanzati, were sold by him in a famous sale in New York (1916); a sale which made over a million dollars which, at the time, was an astronomical sum of money. This portrait once hung at Villa Pia and in the 1916 sale it was identified as a Palma Vecchio and the sitter was said to be Aurelio Onigo.
1. See Christie's sale under provenance. The doubts raisedabout the painting's attribution may have been due to its condition: the portrait had been restored in 1959 by William Suhr, in New York, and Federico Zeri, who saw the portrait on July 9, 1975, had remarked upon its retouched state, describing it as 'il fantasma di un dipinto'. Although the painting may have suffered in the past certain details, such as the white shirt, his glove or ring, are nicely preserved. 2. '... sicuramente di Palma Vecchio'; Rylands, under Literature, 1988, p. 229. 3. Compare, for example, Titian's Portrait of a gentleman belonging to the Earl of Halifax, on loan to the National Gallery in London, or his Portrait of a Man in the Royal Collection of Her Majesty the Queen: see J. Martineau (ed.), The Genius of Venice, 1500-1600, exhibition catalogue, London, Royal Academy of Arts, 1983, cat. nos. 118 and 116, reproduced in color on pp. 78-79 respectively. 4. Inv. no. 3/377, oil on panel, 85 by 73.5 cm.; Rylands, op. cit., p. 245, cat. no. 84, reproduced (dated to 1525-28). 5. Inv. no. 188, oil on panel, transferred to canvas, 69.5 by 55.6 cm.; ibid., p. 202, cat. no. 59, reproduced. 6. Rylands lists the 1904 provenance of this portrait as 'Lania' in Treviso, whereas Tassi and Crowe & Cavalcaselle refer to a portrait belonging to Conte Lana in Brescia. It seems likely that they refer to two different pictures. See F.M. Tassi, Vite de' pittori, scultori e architetti bergamaschi, Bergamo 1793, vol. I, p. 102 (as in the Galleria de' Conti Lana, Brescia) and J.A. Crowe & G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy..., New York 1912, vol. III, p. 388 (as Conte Lana collection, Brescia).
