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Portrait of Bianca Cappello

Francesco Montemezzano Verona um 1540 - Venedig nach 1602, attr.


Portrait of Bianca Cappello

Lot-No. 20

Proceeds : 6.200 €


Oil/canvas, 70 x 52 cm, on the reverse initials 'GB', min. rest., relined. - Prov.: Possibly Gaetano Stefano Bartolazzi, London; Dorotheum, Vienna, 14.02.1941, as Francesco Montemezzano. - Bianca Cappello (1548-1587) was born into a noble Venetian family. At the age of 15 she eloped with her lover Pietro Bonaventuri to Florence, where she soon became mistress of the later Tuscan grand duke Francesco I. de' Medici. He married her in 1579 after the death of his first wife. In 1587 the couple died within one day, as rumour has it, poisened by Francesco's brother Ferdinando I. de' Medici who then became grand duke. - For the initials 'GB' on the reverse cf. the almost identical stamp in Lugt 1137. - Italian portrait a. history painter, probably trained by Veronese whose late work the paintings of M. are close to, together with C. Caliari he adorned the bishop's palais in Treviso, he worked for Venetian noble families a. Venetian churches. - Mus.: New York (Met. Mus.), Florenz (Pal. Pitti), Dresden, Lille a. others. - Lit.: Thieme-Becker, Bénézit.

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Francesco Montemezzano: Portrait of Bianca Cappello


Francesco Montemezzano Verona um 1540 - Venedig nach 1602, attr.

Portrait of Bianca Cappello

Lot-No. 20

Proceeds : 6.200 €

Print

Oil/canvas, 70 x 52 cm, on the reverse initials 'GB', min. rest., relined. - Prov.: Possibly Gaetano Stefano Bartolazzi, London; Dorotheum, Vienna, 14.02.1941, as Francesco Montemezzano. - Bianca Cappello (1548-1587) was born into a noble Venetian family. At the age of 15 she eloped with her lover Pietro Bonaventuri to Florence, where she soon became mistress of the later Tuscan grand duke Francesco I. de' Medici. He married her in 1579 after the death of his first wife. In 1587 the couple died within one day, as rumour has it, poisened by Francesco's brother Ferdinando I. de' Medici who then became grand duke. - For the initials 'GB' on the reverse cf. the almost identical stamp in Lugt 1137. - Italian portrait a. history painter, probably trained by Veronese whose late work the paintings of M. are close to, together with C. Caliari he adorned the bishop's palais in Treviso, he worked for Venetian noble families a. Venetian churches. - Mus.: New York (Met. Mus.), Florenz (Pal. Pitti), Dresden, Lille a. others. - Lit.: Thieme-Becker, Bénézit.

Portrait of Bianca Cappello
Portrait of Bianca Cappello