NARRATOR:
The small size of this painting belies its power and artistic importance. Dated 1474, it is the earliest known painting in oil and the earliest portrait by the great Venetian Renaissance master Giovanni Bellini. The subject is Joerg Fugger, the 21-year-old son of the German banker Jacob Fugger, one of the wealthiest men in Europe. The young man was most likely visiting Venice on family business when he sat for Bellini. But, he’s not represented as man of finance. The laurel wreath around his head identifies him as student of classical learning. And the intense faraway look in his eyes suggests that he’s concerned with loftier matters than a ledger book. Presumably, Joerg became so enamored of the Renaissance culture of Venice that he wanted to be portrayed as a humanist scholar.
As always in Bellini’s portraits, the features are modeled with extraordinary sensitivity and precision. Notice the subtle, almost imperceptible transitions from neck to jaw to cheek. And, as always, his colors are rich and glowing. Bellini seems to have been especially taken with his sitter’s wonderful cloud of auburn curls, set off against a background of the deepest teal blue. In contrast to the profile portrait so customary in Venice, Bellini depicted his sitter in ¾ view, probably as a concession to the northern European tradition.
Portrait of Joerg Fugger
1474
Giovanni Bellini (Italian, c.1430-1516)
On View
Joerg Fugger, the heir of a wealthy German banking family, was born in Augsburg in 1453. Depicted here at age 21, he wears in his hair a garland of small blue blossoms, which designates him as a student of ancient learning. This portrait is notable on several accounts: it is the first known portrait by Giovanni Bellini, the greatest Venetian painter of the early Italian Renaissance. It is also one of the first paintings by an Italian artist executed in oil rather than tempera. Further, the portrait’s objective realism departs from the stiff, stylized, late-Gothic tradition of portraiture that then prevailed in Venice.
Bellini’s compositional and stylistic innovations can be traced to a variety of local Italian sources, including his brother-in-law, Andrea Mantegna, and his father, Jacopo. He also demonstrates an awareness of the work of a Southern Italian painter, Antonello da Messina, who was himself present in Venice in the mid-1470s. It is unclear whether this latter artist’s work informed Bellini directly, or whether both drew from Northern European influences that were already present in Italy by the mid-fifteenth century. Works by Rogier van der Weyden, Hugo van der Goes, Jan van Eyck, Petrus Christus, Dieric Bouts and Hans Memling were certainly commissioned by Italian patrons and were readily available to Bellini, who, especially in his portraiture, emulated the three-quarter rather than profile view, set against a neutral background or later alla fiamminga, that is, “in the Flemish style,” with sky and landscape. Bellini’s portrait of the young Fugger, who resided in Venice in 1474, when this panel was commissioned, marks the seminal moment that would inform portrait painting, as well as devotional images, in Italy for the next generation of artists such as Raphael, Leonardo, and Fra Bartolomeo who followed in his creative wake.
Until a restoration of the panel was undertaken in the early 20th century, the back of the painting bore this inscription, written in a Venetian dialect: Jeorg Fugger a di XX di Zugno MCCCCLXXIIII [Jeorg Fugger on this day of 20 June 1474].
Details
- Artist Name: Giovanni Bellini (Italian, c.1430-1516)
- Title: Portrait of Joerg Fugger
- Date: 1474
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Dimensions: 10-1/4 x 7-7/8 in. (26 x 20 cm)
- Credit Line: Norton Simon Art Foundation
- Accession Number: M.1969.13.P
- Copyright: © Norton Simon Art Foundation
Object Information
Johannes, Count of Fugger-Oberkirchberg, Castle Oberkirchberg, Ulm.
Walter C. Schnackenberg, Munich and Monaco, until Dec. 10, 1926 when sold to;
[F. Kleinberger and Co., New York (stock no. 15773) and Paris, 1926 – sold May 17, 1928 for $40,000 to];
Conte Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, Florence, by inheritance to;
Heirs of the Contini-Bonacossi Estate, Florence, by inheritance to;
[Lorenzo Papi, Florence];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
Walter C. Schnackenberg, Munich and Monaco, until Dec. 10, 1926 when sold to;
[F. Kleinberger and Co., New York (stock no. 15773) and Paris, 1926 – sold May 17, 1928 for $40,000 to];
Conte Alessandro Contini-Bonacossi, Florence, by inheritance to;
Heirs of the Contini-Bonacossi Estate, Florence, by inheritance to;
[Lorenzo Papi, Florence];
Norton Simon Art Foundation.
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