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Portrait of Count Fortunato Martinengo Cesaresco (?)

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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This lavishly dressed sitter, wearing a coat lined with lynx or snow leopard fur, is the Brescian nobleman and humanist Fortunato Martinengo (1512–1552). Ancient gold and silver coins and a bronze oil lamp in the shape of a foot on the table allude to his scholarly interests, and perhaps also to a pilgrimage to Jerualem that he planned to make. His pose, with his head resting on his hand, is associated with melancholy. The inscription in Greek on his cap means: ‘Alas, I yearn too much.’ It is unclear whether he longs for knowledge, for a person, or for the pilgrimage. The portrait can be dated by the clothing to around 1540–5, when the sitter was around 30 years old. It may have been commissioned by Fortunato or his brothers as a memento before he undertook the dangerous journey to the Holy Land in 1541.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

Portrait of Count Fortunato Martinengo Cesaresco (?)

Date

about 1540-5

Medium

Oil on canvas

Measurements

H 114 x W 94.4 cm

Accession number

NG299

Acquisition method

Bought, 1858

Work type

Painting

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The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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