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©
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)

Portrait of Antonio Anselmi

ca. 1550
Oil on canvas.
75 x 63 cm
Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on deposit with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)
Inv. no.
404
(
1930.115
)
Not on display
  • Level 2 Permanent Collection
  • Level 1 Permanent Collection
  • Level 0 Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
  • Level -1 Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Level 2
Permanent Collection
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 14 13 15 16 17 18 22 19 20 21 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 Recommended start of the visitClassical rooms
1 14th Century. Early Italian Painting 2 15th Century. German and Spanish Painting 3 15th Century. Early Netherlandish Painting 4 15th Century. Italian Painting 5 15th and 16th Centuries. Renaissance Portraiture 6 16th Century. Villahermosa Gallery 7 16th Century. Italian Painting 8 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 9 15th and 16th Centuries. German Painting 10 16th Century. Netherlandish Painting 11 Tiziano, Tintoretto, Bassano and  El Greco 12 17th Century. Caravaggio and Baroque Painting 13 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 14 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 15 17th Century. Italian, French and Spanish Painting 16 18th Century. Italian Painting 17 18th Century. Italian Painting 18 18th Century. Italian Painting 19 Classical rooms 20 Classical rooms 21 Classical rooms 22 18th Century. Italian Painting 23 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 24 18th Century. French and English Painting 25 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Scenes of Daily Life and Interiors 26 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 27 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Portrait 28 17th Century. Dutch Painting. Landscape 29 19th Century. European Painting. Goya and Romanticism  
Level 1
Permanent Collection
30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 Postpop rooms Rodin room
30 18th and 19th Centuries. Transatlantic Relations 31 19th Century. American Landscape and Environmental Awareness 32 19th Century. American Landscape and Urban Life 33 Recovering the ligth. Restoration of Waterloo Bridge, by André Derain 34 20th Century. Expressionist Landscapes 35 20th Century. Expressionist Portraits 36 20th Century. The Language of the Body 37 20th Century. Urban unrest 38 20th Century. Flowers 39 20th Century. Pioneers of abstraction 40 20th Century. Popular flavor 41 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition I 42 20th Century. The Cubist Tradition II 43 20th Century. Abstract Utopias 44 20th Century. Dada and Surrealism 45 20th Century. Interwar Realisms 46 20th Century. American Abstraction I 48 20th Century. Post-ward American Art 49 20th Century. Post-ward European Figurative Art 50 20th Century. Informalisms 51 20th Century. Homo Ludens 52 20th Century. Pop Art 53 Postpop rooms 54 Postpop rooms 55 Postpop rooms 56 Postpop rooms Rodin Exhibition room
Level 0
Carmen Thyssen Collection and Temporary exhibition rooms
A B C D E F G H I J Hall Temporary exhibition rooms Access to Permanent Collection Entrance Access to Carmen Thyssen Collection Paseo del Prado Garden
A 17th and 18th Centuries. Old Masters B 19th Century. North American Landscape C 19th Century. French Naturalist Landscape D 19th Century. Impressionism E 19th Century. Monet and North American Impressionism F 19th Century. Gauguin and Postimpressionism G 19th and 20th Centuries. Neo Impressionism and its Wake H 20th Century. Early Avant-gardes I 20th Century. Between the Wars Painting. Cubism, Abstraction and Surrealism J 20th Century. North American Painting and Others • HALL
Level -1
Temporary exhibition rooms, Conference room and EducaThyssen workshop
Temporary exhibition rooms Conference room EducaThyssen Workshop

The present portrait was first published in 1905 in an article by Freidrich Rintelen. Rintelen supplied the name of the sitter, which at that date was identifiable from an old inscription on the back of the painting, now lost. This inscription also stated the sitter’s age to be 38 and gave the name of the artist.

Between 1906 and 1909 the canvas was in the Berlin collection of W. von Dirksen. During this time it was lent to two exhibitions held in 1906 and 1909 at the Kaiser-Friedrich Museum in Berlin. It was subsequently in the possession of the F. Steinmeyer gallery in Lucerne in 1927 and the Haberstock gallery in Berlin in 1928, and was acquired from the latter by Baron Heinrich Thyssen.

The painting dates from the 1550s, the decade that marks the start of Titian’s final phase. At the end of that decade, in 1558, his most important client — Charles V — died, followed by the artist’s brother Francesco the following year. However, this period also saw the start of his relationship with Philip II of Spain. Artist and monarch corresponded and Titian sent Philip works from Venice.

Antonio Anselmi (1512-ca. 1568) was Bolognese by origin. A scholar and friend of Benedetto Varchi, he worked as secretary to Cardinal Pietro Bembo (the subject of a portrait by Titian now in the National Gallery of Art, Washington). Later he entered the service of Bishop Ludovico Beccadelli (also portrayed by Titian in a work in the Uffizi). Anselmi was also a poet and author and corresponded with Pietro Aretino.

As Wethey noted, this canvas corresponds stylistically to Titian’s work of the 1550s. At this period the artist generally presented his sitters in three-quarter format rather than half-length as we see here, and Wethey noted that this choice may be directly related to the particular requirements of the present commission. The painting was left unfinished, as can be seen at the lower right corner in which Anselmi leans his left arm on an undefined area. Titian focuses all his attention on the face, which is highly finished and emerges from the background into which the clothing, hair and beard almost disappear. Only the white of the collar and the fur trim around it stand out and function to emphasise the features still further, particularly Anselmi’s gaze. Overall, as critics have noted, Titian’s portrait achieves a superb characterisation with enormous economy of means.

Some years later Tintoretto also painted this sitter, this time in three-quarter format in a landscape and dressed as a Venetian Senator. That painting is now in Los Angeles County Museum of Art. 

Mar Borobia

16th Century16th Century - Italian paintingPaintingOilcanvas
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Portrait of Antonio Anselmi

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Portrait of Antonio Anselmi. Retrato de Antonio Anselmi, c. 1550
Portrait of Antonio Anselmi
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)

©

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)

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Portrait of Antonio Anselmi. Retrato de Antonio Anselmi, c. 1550
Portrait of Antonio Anselmi
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)

©

Thyssen-Bornemisza Collection, on loan with the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya (MNAC)

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