Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici and Monsignor Mario Bracci

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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Notes

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This painting looks as though it has been composed from two separate portraits. The figure in the red and white dress of a cardinal points to the signature on the parchment in front of him, ‘Hyppol[itus] me[dicis] Vice cancel[arius]’, which identifies him as Cardinal Ippolito de‘ Medici, vice-chancellor of the Holy Roman Church. The man in black holds his cap respectfully in one hand and a portable inkwell (with pen case attached) in the other. This rests on the same piece of parchment, near another signature which reads ’M de Bracijs‘, for Marco Bracci.

The painting was probably designed to record Bracci’s importance and to show how, as chancery official, he attended Ippolito de’ Medici in person. It is likely that Bracci commissioned the picture given his prominence and that the Cardinal is not painted from life, but copied from a portrait by Titian of 1532–3 (now in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence).

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Cardinal Ippolito de' Medici and Monsignor Mario Bracci

Date

after 1532

Medium

Oil on wood

Measurements

H 138.4 x W 111.8 cm

Accession number

NG20

Acquisition method

Holwell Carr Bequest, 1831

Work type

Painting

Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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