(Venice 1673–1757)
Portrait of a nobleman in armour, half-length,
pastel on paper laid down on canvas, 57 x 43.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private collection, Turin;
Private European collection

Exhibited:
Turin, Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea – GAM, Giacomo Ceruti e la ritrattistica del suo tempo nell’Italia Settentrionale, February – March 1967, no. 57 (as Rosalba Carriera, label on the reverse)

Literature:
L. Mallé, G. Testori (eds.), Giacomo Ceruti e la ritrattistica del suo tempo nell’Italia Settentrionale, exhibition catalogue, Turin 1967, p. 59, cat. no. 57, plate 16 (as Rosalba Carriera);
B. Sani, Rosalba Carriera, Turin 1988, p. 283, no. 64, fig. 52 (as Rosalba Carriera, dated around 1713);
B. Sani, Rosalba Carriera 1673–1757. Maestra del pastello nell’Europa ‘ancien regime’, Turin 2007, pp. 98–100, no. 68 (as Rosalba Carriera);
N. Jeffares, Dictionary of Pastellists before 1800, Rosalba Carriera – Unnamed Sitters, online-version, updated September 2024, pp. 4–5, no. J.21.2271 (as Rosalba Carriera)

The present pastel, showing a young nobleman in armour, is an important example of Rosalba Carriera’s success as a portraitist of the artistic and social elite of her time. The sitter is shown half-length before a greyish background, with his body turned to his left as he faces outwards, focused on the viewer. His mouth is curled into a smile and soft, powdered white curls surround his face. His youthful charm is captured with lightness and spontaneity, and Rosalba’s bravura is shown in the mastery of tone and texture, especially in the nuanced colour transitions, light and shadow on the sitter’s armour.

Rosalba Carriera only produced a small group of portraits showing men in armour and the present pastel can be compared to the Portrait of an Officer in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden (inv. no. P 122), for whom an identification of the Elector of Saxony, Frederick Augustus II, future King of Poland, August III, has been suggested. The composition and clothing of the two sitters are similar, but the overall effect is substantially different. The sitter in the Dresden pastel is shown in a stiff pose, has a barely noticeable smile and very styled hair, whereas the present sitter is seen more closely, has a more pronounced smile and less formal hair that softens his pose.

Rosalba Carriera was one of the most celebrated women painters of any age, and her success came early and was of international reach. Sovereigns, members of the aristocracy and others competed to have their portrait painted by her, or to acquire one of her pictures. Augustus III King of Poland collected more than a hundred of her pastels which were subsequently exhibited in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden. For the same sovereign, around 1710–1715, Carriera executed one of her very rare oil paintings (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, inv. no. 1655). It was in the particular genre of portraiture that Carriera’s work, due to its evident traits of pictorial lightness and freedom, entered the mainstream of the Rococo style, which at the close of the seventeenth century was to restore Venetian painting to a position of international importance.

The earliest records of her works in pastel date to 1703, two years later she was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca, Rome. Soon after receiving further recognition for her art with her nomination as a member of the Accademia Clementina, Bologna in 1720, the artist travelled to Paris where she was to remain until the early months of the following year. In the French capital Carriera was able to portray all the leading figures of the era, working for Louis XV of France, then still a child, and for the regent, Duke Philipp II d’Orléans. Her journey to Paris also increased her fame in Italy and in 1723 she was invited to the court in Modena to execute portraits of the d’Este family; the portraits of her friends and artist colleagues Marco and Sebastiano Ricci date to the following year. In 1741 she began the cycle of the Four Elements conserved in the Galleria Corsini, Rome (inv. no. 569, 570, 571 and 572): this series was completed in 1743 and can be compared to the present painting.