Portrait of Lionello d'Este ( 1441 ) - a painting by the Italian artist Pisanello , depicting the Marquis of Lionello d'Este , who ruled Ferrara in 1441-1450. One of the first Renaissance easel portraits.
| ||
| Pisanello | ||
| Portrait of Lionello d'Este . 1441 | ||
| Ritratto di Leonello d'Este | ||
| Board, tempera. 28 × 19 cm | ||
| Academy of Carrara , Bergamo | ||
Content
Story
Lionello d'Este is depicted chest in profile against a background of wild roses. There is an assumption that the image of a rose is a reference to the duke's nickname given by his teacher Guarino da Verona , “the flower of the princes” [1] . The humanist Lodovico Carbone wrote about him like this:
| I could never look without tears at the portrait of Lionello, which was written by Antonio Pisano, so he managed to collect in him the deepest traces of humanity. |
History of the portrait
The portrait was created as a result of a competition between Pisanello and Jacopo Bellini , which took place in Ferrara in the summer of 1441. Famous review of Lionello d'Este about the works of artists:
| Do you remember how Pisanello and Bellini, the most beautiful painters of our time, recently distinguished themselves in different ways in portraying my face. One of them added great expressiveness to my features, while the other depicted them more palely, but no less subtly [1] . |
The winner of the competition was Jacopo Bellini, but the portrait made by him was not preserved.
When Pisanello painted this picture, he already had considerable experience in medal art [2] . At one time it was believed that the “ Portrait of Ginevra d'Este ” (Portrait of the Princess from the House of d'Este) of the same artist is a portrait of Lionello Margarita’s wife and a pair for this picture, but they have been separated for several years, and they are also different in size and cut.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 Art Gallery No. 158, Kiev, 2007, p.10
- ↑ Grashchenkov V.N. Portrait in Italian painting of the Early Renaissance. M., 1996.P. 207
Literature
- Maiskaya M.I. Pisanello, M. 1981, pp. 75-77
- Great Renaissance painters from the Carrara Academy in Bergamo, M. 2014, pp. 44-45
- AA.VV., L'opera completa di Pisanello , Rizzoli, Milano 1966
- Pierluigi De Vecchi ed Elda Cerchiari, I tempi dell'arte , volume 2, Bompiani, Milano 1999.