- Anton Francesco degli Albizzi
Frame: 67 × 52 3/4 × 2 7/8 in. (170.2 × 134 × 7.3 cm)
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This portrait represents Anton Francesco degli Albizzi (1486–1537), a political figure who participated in the establishment of the Florentine Republic. He was described as overbearing, haughty, and restless and was beheaded for treason by Cosimo I de' Medici, grand duke of Tuscany.
The rhetorical grandeur with which Sebastiano del Piombo has imbued the portrait demonstrates why he is considered one of the major figures in High Renaissance painting. According to the famous 16th-century biographer Giorgio Vasari, Sebastiano trained with Renaissance painter Giovanni Bellini in Venice and was also influenced by Renaissance painter Giorgione. In 1511, Sebastiano went to Rome, where he formed both a friendship and professional relationship with Michelangelo, under whose guidance Sebastiano developed a distinctive, powerful, and original personal style. Vasari praised this particular work, writing that the artist made it appear "to be not painted but really alive. . . . The head and hands of the portrait were things truly marvelous, to say nothing of the beautiful execution of the velvets, the linings, the satins, and all the other parts of the picture . . . all Florence was amazed at this portrait of Anton Francesco."
ProvenanceAlbizzi family until 17th century; Falconieri family (possibly from mid-17th century); Walsh Porter; Thomas Lister Parker, Broxholme, in 1804; Robert Heathcote, 1805; George, 4th Earl of Aberdeen, 1805; Charles Cecil Hope, 3rd Earl of Liverpool, by c. 1829; Richard Sanderson; Frederick John, Lord Monson, Gatton Park, near Reigate, by 1857; sold by Viscount Oxenbridge to 1888 to [M. Colnaghi, London]; Robert H. and Evelyn Benson, London by 1895 and to 1927; [Duveen, New York, sold to Samuel H. Kress Collection, 1957]; donated to MFAH, December 9, 1961.
Exhibition HistoryBritish Institute, London, 1816. (Exhibited with the title Lorenzo de'Medici).
"Venetian Art," New Gallery, London, 1894–1895. (Exhibited with the title Portrait of a Senator).
"Old Masters," Burlington Fine Arts Club, London, 1902–1903. (Exhibited with the title Portrait of a Senator).
"Benson Collection," Manchester Art Gallery, England, April–July 1927. (Exhibited with the title Portrait of a Senator).
"Major Masters of the Renaissance," Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts, May 3–June 9 1963.
"Paintings from American Museums, 1976 U.S.S.R. Exchange," State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, February 11–March 24, 1976; State Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, April 8–May 20, 1976; State Museum of Ukrainian Art, Kiev, Ukraine, June 3–July 15, 1976; Belorussian State Museum of Fine Arts, Minsk, Belarus, July 30–September 1976.
“Masterpieces of European Painting from the 15th to 20th Centuries from the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation," Museum of Art, Ehime, Matsuyama, Japan, April 13–May 30, 1999; Chiba Prefectural Art Museum, Japan, June 5–July 11, 1999; Mie Prefectural Art Museum, Tsu, Japan, July 17–August 22, 1999; Fukuoka Art Museum, Japan, August 27–October 3, 1999.
"Sebastiano del Piombo," Palazzo Venezia, Rome, February 7–June 2, 2008; Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen, Sonderausstellungshallen am Kulturforum, Berlin, June 28–September 28, 2008.
"From Raphael to the Carracci: the Art of Papal Rome," National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, May 29, 2009–September 7, 2009.
"New Light on Old Masters: European Art from Houston Collections," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 2, 2021–January 23, 2022.
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
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