Portrait of a cardinal
(c. 1600-1605)
Medium
oil on canvas
Measurements
57.0 × 46.0 cm
Credit Line
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Felton Bequest, 1950
Gallery location
16th & 17th Century Gallery - Painting and Sculpture
Mezzanine linked to Level 1, NGV International
About this work
El Greco introduced to Spain a highly personal style of portraiture influenced by his origins as an icon painter in Crete and his admiration of the colourist painting he encountered in Venice. Thus his work is a blend of formal, stark rigidity and typical Venetian colour and elegance. El Greco’s facility to capture the character of his sitter also derived from Venetian mannerist portraiture. In 1577 El Greco moved from Italy to the Spanish religious centre Toledo, a bastion of the Counter-Reformation, and established himself as the city’s leading painter. The sitter is probably a contemporary of the artist, a member of the clergy from Toledo.
Artwork Details
Accession Number
2253-4
Department
International Painting
This digital record has been made available on NGV Collection Online through the generous support of Digitisation Champion Ms Carol Grigor through Metal Manufactures Limited
Subjects (general)
Portraits Religion and Mythology
Subjects (specific)
beards cardinals (prelates) cassocks (liturgical costume) clergy hairstyles half figures men (male humans)
Provenance
According to Cossio, this painting had been in the estate of M. d'Alborgo, 1st Baron del Asilo, Danish ambassador to Spain sold to Pedro Jose Pidal y Corniado (1799–1865), 1st Marquis de Pidal (created 1847) in 1858 exhibited Museo Nacional de Pintura y Escultura, Madrid, Exposición de las obras de Domenico Thetocopuli, llamado El Greco, 1902, no. 2, owner Luis Pidal y Mon (1842–1913), 2nd Marquis de Pidal collection of the Pidal family in 1908 with Tomas Harris (dealer), London by 1950 from whom acquired, on the advice of A.J.L. McDonnell and Sir Kenneth Clark, for the Felton Bequest, 1950.