(Verona 1516–1567)
Portrait of Giulio Savorgnan with a pickaxe,
oil on canvas, 106 x 74 cm, unframed

Provenance:
European aristocratic collection;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
A. Donati, Giulio Savorgnan in un ritratto inedito di Domenico Brusasorzi a confronto di altri di altri capitani del Cinquecento, in: Studi Veneziani, N.S. 823 (forthcoming publication)

We are grateful to Andrea Donati for suggesting the attribution and for his help in cataloguing the present painting.

The present portrait of Giulio Savorgnan (1510–1595) was once in the collection of his descendents from Friuli. It has been given to the portraitist Domenico Brusasorzi (1516–1567) and both the composition and the mode of representation place this work in the long tradition of sixteenth-century portraits of military leaders called condottieri.

Domenico Brusasorzi was born in Verona in 1516 into a family of artisans (‘murari e marangoni’). After producing a series of paintings as a youth in his home city, he went on to work in Trento, Mantua and Vicenza. His work from this time reflects the influence of Giulio Romano in Mantua and Pordenone in Venice and Cremona, but from his earliest days, Brusasorzi revealed his own gift as a portraitist, in paintings of the religious dignitaries and secular residents of the Venetian State.

Brusasorzi’s portrait of Bonuccio Moscardo (see fig. 1) in the Museo di Castelvecchio, Verona, dates to 1561 and marks a significant example of the artist’s production in the region’s portraiture, to which the present portrait of Giulio Savorgnan can be compared. In making his portrait of this authoritative and proud nobleman from Friuli, Brusasorzi evidently sort to achieve a likeness that reflected the aspirations of the sitter as the champion of his lineage.

It is probable that Giulio Savorgnan commissioned Domenico Brusasorzi to execute his portrait, to be set alongside a collection of portraits of his ancestors and men at arms, begun by his father, Count Girolamo which are listed in family inventories. As Brusasorzi died in Verona on 30 March 1567, and on the basis of documentation which shows Savorgnan moved between Venice and Friuli during this period, it is probable that this portrait dates either to the first months of 1562, or to the second quarter of 1565 (see A. Donati in literature).

The sitter wears armour consisting of a chainmail undershirt covered by a plate metal collar and cuirass to which are attached metal mogoni to protect the upper breast, shoulders and upper arms, while a plate metal tassel is attached beneath the cuirass. The chain male shirt hangs below this and leaves the forearms free to move, while the hands are protected by metal gauntlets. The sitter is shown turned to three-quarters. His gaze communicates prudence and military wisdom. The restrained palette, ranging from dark grey to beige, manifests the parsimonious severity of the astute and mature nobleman. The military engineer, Giulio Savorgnan is represented as senior director of artillery of the army of the Venetian Republic.

The sitter’s identity is revealed by two later, posthumous portraits, which represent him in the same armour and with a baton of command rather than the pickaxe (see A. Donati in literature). Both portraits have been attributed to Domenico Tintoretto (1560–1635), but are in fact evident derivations of the famous portrait of Sebastiano Vernier painted by Jacopo Tintoretto after the battle of Lepanto, which is conserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna (see fig. 2).

Giulio Savorgnan belonged to one of the most illustrious families of Friuli and he was among the era’s leading experts on artillery and military fortification. Following a humanist education – his father was a friend of the cardinal, poet and humanist Pietro Bembo – he was sent to the court of Mantua as a youth, to the Marchese Federico Gonzaga, to learn the art of war. From the second quarter of the sixteenth century onwards, he participated in all the major theatres of war of the period, protecting his own feudal interests, and also serving the Republic of Venice as the leading expert on matters of military artillery. He was known and respected by all the leading condottieri of Northern Italy.

The pickaxe Savorgnan bears on his shoulder in this portrait could be used in battle to dig trenches, to build fortifications and to attack ramparts, but above all it was the traditional instrument of miners.

Therefore the pickaxe has an emblematic meaning here, referring to the mines of the Valle Bombarina for which the Savorgnan family had attained the concession from the Republic of Venice (Udine, Biblioteca Civica Joppi, Fondo Joppi, cod. 689a, see Donati in literature). These mines were an essentially financial resource for Count Giulio, who on several occasions claimed not to have been paid sufficiently by the State.

For this portrait, Brusasorzi was influenced by Titian’s achievements in military portraiture: the Savorgnan portrait is especially close to that of Giovanni Federico of Saxony in armour which was destroyed in a fire at the Alcázar, Madrid, but of which a copy survives (see fig. 3). There is consonance in the proud but restrained gaze, the earthy colours of the background and the soft edged contours in the present painting, implying that Brusasorzi evidently must have known a version of the work by Titian (see H. E. Wethey, The paintings of Titian, London 1971, p. 171, no. X-65, fig. 247, a copy ‘copia dell’originale del 1550’; in the Spanish inventories two versions are noted of the portrait of Giovanni Federico di Sassonia in armatura; additionally, in 1550-1551 Titian painted a portrait of Giovanni Federico di Sassonia in abito nero, the original of which is conserved in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna: ivi, pp. 111-112, no. 54, fig. 159).

The present painting is a significant contribution to military portraiture, from the sixteenth century and it is a mature example of Brusasorzi’s work as a portraitist.