The ''Portrait of Bindo Altoviti'' is a painting finished around 1515 by the Italian
High Renaissance painter
Raphael. It is housed in the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
of
Washington, D.C., United States.
Bindo Altoviti was a rich banker born in Rome in 1491 of
Florentine origin. He was a cultured man who liked the arts.
The graceful, almost effeminate position of the subject along with the heavy contrast between light and shadow are atypical of Raphael's work, particularly of his portraits of men, demonstrating the artist's experimentation with different styles and forms in his later Roman period. The influence of the works of
Leonardo
Leonardo is a masculine given name, the Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese equivalent of the English, German, and Dutch name, Leonard
Leonard or ''Leo'' is a common English masculine given name and a surname.
The given name and surname originate ...
, which Raphael studied astutely during this period of his career, is strikingly evident in this particular piece.
The painting was a property of Altoviti's descendants until 1808, when it was sold to
Ludwig I of Bavaria. It remained at the
Alte Pinakothek until 1936, when, after many debates about its attribution, the painting was lured out of Nazi Germany by "canny English dealers". Acquired by
Samuel Henry Kress
Samuel Henry Kress (July 23, 1863 – September 22, 1955) was a businessman, philanthropist, and founder of the S. H. Kress & Co. five and ten cent store chain. With his fortune, Kress amassed one of the most significant collections of Italian R ...
, the portrait subsequently became property of the
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art, and its attached Sculpture Garden, is a national art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of char ...
in Washington, D.C..
A bronze bust of Altoviti by
Benvenuto Cellini
Benvenuto Cellini (, ; 3 November 150013 February 1571) was an Italian goldsmith, sculptor, and author. His best-known extant works include the ''Cellini Salt Cellar'', the sculpture of ''Perseus with the Head of Medusa'', and his autobiography ...
is exhibited in Boston at the
Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
See also
*
List of paintings by Raphael
The following is a list of paintings by Italian Renaissance painter Raphael. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. He was enormously prolific, despite his early death at ...
References
Further reading
*David Brown and Jane Van Nimmen. ''Raphael and the Beautiful Banker: The Story of the Bindo Altoviti Portrait''. Yale University Press, 2005.
External links
*
Catalogue record for the painting at National Gallery of Art
{{Raphael
1515 paintings
Bindo
Bindo is a retail technology company, headquartered in New York, NY with APAC headquarters in Hong Kong. Its core product is a cloud-based point of sale system that enables online shopping for the end consumer. Bindo's hyperlocal marketplace all ...
Collections of the National Gallery of Art
Bindo
Bindo is a retail technology company, headquartered in New York, NY with APAC headquarters in Hong Kong. Its core product is a cloud-based point of sale system that enables online shopping for the end consumer. Bindo's hyperlocal marketplace all ...