Bartolomeo Passerotti
(Bologna 1529–1592)
Portrait of a scholar, three-quarter-length, beside a table,
inscribed upper centre: IVLIVS. CAESAR CLAVDINVS PHIL/ET MED. LECTOR PVB,
oil on canvas, 109.5 x 88 cm, framed
Provenance:
sale, Christie’s, New York, 31 January 2023, lot 319 (as Bartolomeo Passerotti)

The present painting is an example of Bartolomeo Passerotti’s portraiture datable to the 1570s and during this period his works are characterised by sitters shown in three-quarter-length, displaying their collections or other scholarly attributes. The sitter in the present painting is holding a book in his left hand and is depicted turned slightly to the left, to achieve a well-lit view of his face and to lend the composition a sense of movement. His features are pensive and the dark colouring of his doublet and the background make the white of the cuffs and ruff stand out to frame the warm flesh tones of his face and hands. A similar pose and the quiet, expressive mood of introspection can be observed in Passerotti’s celebrated Portrait of Sertorio Sertori, which is dated 1577 and today conserved in the Galleria Estense, Modena (inv. no. 8018, see A. Ghirardi, Bartolomeo Passerotti. Catalogo Generale, Rimini 1990, p. 215, no. 54).

Bartolomeo Passerotti was one of the most important and best-known portraitists of the sixteenth century and was highly regarded by his contemporaries, such as Titian, as well as by leading artists from later generations, including Guido Reni. He was born in Bologna and travelled to Rome twice in his early life. By 1560 he had settled in Bologna where he established a workshop. The earliest documented Bolognese paintings by the artist show a pictorial language influenced by Correggio and Parmigianino, and an anatomical interest in powerful figures similar to that of Pellegrino Tibaldi. Passerotti’s painting reflects his active involvement in the cultural life of Bologna during the latter half of the sixteenth century.