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Notes
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The sitter’s doublet is inscribed on the neckline: ALBERTVS. PIVS CARP [...] + MDXII (‘Alberto Pio from Carpi 1512’). Alberto Pio was recognised as the legitimate ruler of Carpi, near the Italian town of Modena, in 1512 – but by then he was 37, older than he appears here. The knotted decorations on his clothing have a heraldic character and are associated with the Savoia family, with which the Pio family were connected. The lines in the open book are a famous passage of Book VI of Virgil’s Aeneid: the dead Anchises explains the transmigration of souls – in which a soul passes from one body to another after death – to his son, Aeneas, who has visited him in the underworld. The scene in the background showing the twin peaks of the sacred mountain Parnassus is probably related to the text, although it is not clear how.
Title
Portrait of Alberto Pio
Date
1512
Medium
Oil on wood
Measurements
H 58.4 x W 49.5 cm
Accession number
NG3940
Acquisition method
Mond Bequest, 1924
Work type
Painting
