Portrait of Daniele Barbaro

Portrait of Daniele Barbaro
Artist Paolo Veronese
Year 1565-1567
Type Oil on canvas
Dimensions 121 cm × 105.5 cm (48 in × 41.5 in)
Location on loan from Rijksmuseum to the National Gallery, London

The Portrait of Daniele Barbaro is a painting by the Italian Renaissance master Paolo Veronese (from circa 1565-1567), belonging to the collection of the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam.

There is another portrait by Veronese in the Pitti Palace, Florence (where Barbaro is dressed as a Venetian aristocrat). Barbaro was also portrayed by Titian.

Background

Daniele Barbaro was a member of the Venetian aristocracy (see Barbaro family). He was an important prelate, humanist and architectural theorist, who commissioned a number of works from Veronese. Veronese had been involved directly with Barbaro and his brother Marcantonio Barbaro, decorating the Villa Barbaro, Maser, which Palladio designed.

Here Barbaro is portrayed sitting in the audience posture (reserved normally for Popes and cardinals) in recognition of his status as cardinal and Patriarch of Aquileia.

The book standing up is the La Practica della Perspettiva, Barbaro's treatise on artistic perspective.[1] The other volume on the table is Barbaro's "Commentary" on Vitruvius' De architectura,[2] which has illustrations by Andrea Palladio. Barbaro's Commentary on Vitruvius was published in Italian in 1556, but the portrait may be linked to the publication of a second edition in Latin in the 1560s.

References

  1. ^ (Italian) Il Rituale... article by Maurizio Nicosia
  2. ^ National Gallery website Accessed December 2008 (when this source referred to the painting being in London on loan from the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).