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Shown from the chest up, an older, pale-skinned man dressed in scarlet red faces us in this vertical portrait painting. His slender body is turned slightly to our right, but his head turns back to our left so he gazes at a point just over our left shoulder. His large, deep-set dark blue eyes are lined with crow’s feet over high, angular cheekbones. His dark brown beard is shot through with silvery gray, and he has brown, chin-length hair and bangs across his lined forehead. His red garment has a high neck, and the opening down the front is lined with white, perhaps fur. A black sash drapes over his left shoulder, to our right. He is illuminated with warm light from the upper left and set against a dark brown background. A portion of an inscribed plaque is visible just over his right shoulder. It reads, “…TIS …OIX.”
Read the visual description

Shown from the chest up, an older, pale-skinned man dressed in scarlet red faces us in this vertical portrait painting. His slender body is turned slightly to our right, but his head turns back to our left so he gazes at a point just over our left shoulder. His large, deep-set dark blue eyes are lined with crow’s feet over high, angular cheekbones. His dark brown beard is shot through with silvery gray, and he has brown, chin-length hair and bangs across his lined forehead. His red garment has a high neck, and the opening down the front is lined with white, perhaps fur. A black sash drapes over his left shoulder, to our right. He is illuminated with warm light from the upper left and set against a dark brown background. A portion of an inscribed plaque is visible just over his right shoulder. It reads, “…TIS …OIX.”

National Gallery of Art · Painting

Andrea de' Franceschi

after Titian

Date
late 16th or early 17th century
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 64.8 x 50.6 cm (25 1/2 x 19 15/16 in.) framed: 87.15 x 73.98 x 7.78 cm (34 5/16 x 29 1/8 x 3 1/16 in.)
Classification
Painting
Accession number
1937.1.35
Credit line
Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Time span
1501 to 1550
Department
CIS-R
Original NGA record Wikidata

Subjects and terms

  • painted surface
  • male
  • portrait
  • Venetian
  • Renaissance
  • Italian Paintings of the Sixteenth Century
  • Franceschi, Andrea dei
Provenance

("Anthony," London); purchased before 1859 by Francis Richard Charteris, Lord Elcho [1818-1914, from 1883 the 10th earl of Wemyss], London, and Gosford House, Lothian, Scotland;[1] by inheritance to his son, Hugo Richard Charteris, 11th earl of Wemyss [1857-1937], Gosford House, until 1927; (Wildenstein & Co., New York); sold 1928 to (M. Knoedler & Co., New York); purchased January 1928 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[2] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The painting was lent by Lord Elcho to the British Institution in 1859. Confirmation that the painting was not inherited by Lord Elcho, but was purchased by him from a London dealer named “Anthony,” was kindly provided to Peter Humfrey by Shelagh, Countess of Wemyss and March, on the basis of family papers at Gosford House. See also Shelagh Wemyss, "Francis, Lord Elcho (10th Earl of Wemyss) as a Collector of Italian Old Masters," _Journal of the Scottish Society for Art History_ 8 (2003): 73-76, and on the collecting by the earls of Wemyss and March, _Pictures from Gosford House Lent by The Earl of Wemyss and March_, exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1957; "The Earls of Wemyss and March," in _Dutch Art and Scotland: A Reflection of Taste_, exh. cat., National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, 1992: 171. [2] Mellon date deeded to Mellon Trust is according to Mellon collection records in NGA curatorial files and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).

Inscription

upper left on tablet: ...TIS/...OIX

NGA object ID 42. Collection metadata is reproduced under CC0. This work is included because its NGA published-image record is marked open access; visitors should recheck the source record before substantial reuse.