IN THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART, NEW YORK
PORTRAIT OF FEDERIGO GONZAGA, BY FRANCIA
THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
Francia
ONE
Though Francia can hardly be ranked with the giants of Italian art, he has given us a number of placid altarpieces and a few exceptionally attractive portraits. The portrait of Federigo Gonzaga is one of the best from his brush. Francia, a shortening of Francesco, was born in Bologna, Italy, in the year 1450 or thereabout. He took the family name of the goldsmith, Raibolini, to whom he was apprenticed at the beginning of his artistic career. As a worker in metal he did some die-cutting for medals, and designed some highly decorative pieces of jewelry. We have an indication of his interest in this phase of art in the necklace worn by Federigo Gonzaga. When Lorenzo Costa, later known as the head of the Bolognese School of painters, settled in Bologna, Francia became his intimate friend, and from that time on seems to have devoted his attention to painting. As regards the graceful pose and expression of his figures, he belonged among the followers of Perugino, a painter who had a strong influence upon the work of his most illustrious pupil, Raphael. Francia’s earliest dated altarpiece was completed when he was about forty-five, but he had probably been working in conjunction with Costa for a number of years before that time. Professor John C. Van Dyke, in his “History of Painting,” tells us that Francia’s “color was usually cold, his drawing a little sharp at first, as showing the goldsmith’s hand, the surfaces smooth, the detail elaborate.” Francia died in the year 1517.
The tale of the way in which the commission was received to paint the portrait shown in this gravure is interesting. Federigo was the son of Francesco Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, and Isabella d’Este, the famous art patron. While fighting in the company of the Milanese against the Venetians at Legnago, the Marquis was captured, but through the intervention of the pope was liberated. However, the pope demanded as a hostage Francesco’s son, Federigo, then ten years of age, stipulating that he be sent to the papal court at Rome. The boy’s mother, on being parted from him, insisted that she have a portrait of him, and on the journey to Rome, in July, 1510, he halted at Bologna, where his father was, and visited the studio of Francia. In ten days the artist had completed the portrait with the exception of the background, which was finished later. The noble mother was much pleased with the result, and in expressing her gratification to the painter sent him thirty ducats of gold. We have in her own words the statement that “it is impossible to see a better portrait or a closer resemblance.”
The panel, a singularly perfect example of Francia’s careful manner of painting, passed from Isabella d’Este to a gentleman who had done her a service, and thereafter remained in obscurity until, over three centuries later, it appeared in a London auction room in the collection of Prince Jerome Bonaparte. Later it came into the possession of Mr. Altman, who bequeathed it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, VOL. 6, No. 9. SERIAL No. 157
COPYRIGHT, 1918, BY THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION, INC.