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Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Ridolfo Ghirlandaio

Portrait of a Nobleman of the Capponi Family

ca. 1555
Oil on panel.
80 x 60.5 cm
Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid
Inv. no.
159
(
1977.69
)
Room 6
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  

Ridolfo Ghirlandaio was the son of Domenico. On the death of his father, from whom he may have learned the rudiments of painting, he continued his studies in the family workshop with his uncle Davide. During the course of his lengthy career Ridolfo produced both frescoes and easel paintings on religious subjects as well as decorative designs for some of the celebrations and other events that took place in Florence. Nonetheless, his most important contribution was in the genre of portraiture. His compositions combine elements from artists such as Fra Bartolommeo, Piero di Cosimo, Raphael and Leonardo, influences that he gradually added to his own style and which had more or less importance depending on the various phases of his artistic evolution. One of Ghirlandaio’s most important works is the San Zenobio Altarpiece of 1517, particularly two scenes of the miracle of the saint and the transportation of his body, both set in Florence. Also significant are the fresco for the cappella dei Papi in Santa Maria Novella of 1515 and the grotesques that adorn the Camera verde in the Palazzo Vecchio of 1542.

Vasari referred to Ghirlandaio in his Lives and associated him with two great 16th-century artists. One of these references links him with Raphael, with whom Ghirlandaio seems to have made friends when the young Raphael arrived in Florence. The second reference relates to Michelangelo and the design for The Battle of Cascina, and Vasari mentions Ghirlandaio as one of the group of artists who studied and copied that work.

Portrait of a Nobleman of the Capponi Family entered the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in 1977, prior to which it was in a private Italian collection. The painting was initially attributed to Bronzino on the suggestion of Giuliano Briganti until 1980 when Alan Salz proposed that it was by Ghirlandaio. The panel has consequently been catalogued as by Ghirlandaio since 1986, the date of Gertrude Borghero’s catalogue of the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection at Villa Favorita.

This unidentified member of the Capponi family is depicted half-length against a background of subtly graduated mauve tones. Presented seated, he supports his left elbow on the arm of a chair of which only the tip of the outside edge is visible at the bottom of the composition. His corpulent body completely fills the surface, which is principally occupied by the large, dark, modelled area of the clothes. The sitter’s face, framed by his cap, is rigorously and realistically rendered, reflecting one of Ghirlandaio’s most outstanding characteristics, particularly evident in details such as the double chin and the bags beneath the eyes. This realistic rendering is also evident in the plump, fleshy hands, which are small in relation to the overall size of the figure. The portrait has been dated to the last phase of Ghirlandaio’s career.

Mar Borobia

16th Century16th Century - Italian paintingPaintingOilpanel
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Portrait of a Nobleman of the Capponi Family. Retrato de un caballero de la casa Capponi, c. 1555
Portrait of a Nobleman of the Capponi Family
Ridolfo Ghirlandaio

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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Portrait of a Nobleman of the Capponi Family. Retrato de un caballero de la casa Capponi, c. 1555
Portrait of a Nobleman of the Capponi Family
Ridolfo Ghirlandaio

©

Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid

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