(Cremona 1502–1573)
Portrait of a gentleman, three-quarter length,
oil on canvas, 143.5 x 102 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection of Robert Stayner Holford, London, 1852;
by descent to Robert and Evelyn Benson, London and Buckhurst Park, Sussex, until 1927;
probably aquired by Joseph Duveen, in 1927
Collection of Detlev von Hadeln, Florence;
sale, Sotheby’s London, 24 June 1970, lot 55;
Private European collection

Literature:
G. F. Waagen, Treasures of art in Great Britain: being an account of the chief collections of paintings, drawings, sculptures, illuminated mss., &c. &c., vol. II, London 1854, p. 197 (as Sebastiano del Piombo);
B. Berenson, North Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York 1907, p. 186 (as Giulio Campi)

The present portrait shows the sitter, three-quarter length, displaying his sumptuous robes demonstrating his social rank. In his right hand he holds a glove, while he touches the hilt of his sword with his left, referring to his membership of the military aristocracy.

This portrait is an example of type of portraiture that evolved in the Po valley during the 1520s, combining the influence of Moretto and Girolamo da Carpi with an awareness of the artistic developments in portraiture north of the Alps. These are all qualities that point to Cremona, the Lombard ‘little Antwerp’ of the Cinquecento as Roberto Longhi called it (R. Longhi, Quesiti caravaggeschi. II: I precedenti, in: Pinacoteca, 5-6, 1929; reissued in: op. cit., ‘Me pinxit’ e Quesiti caravaggeschi, Opere complete, IV, Florence 1968, p. 123).


During the 19th century this painting formed part of the celebrated collection of Robert Stayner Holford (1808–1892) which he housed in his London residence, Dorchester House, an Italianate mansion on Park Lane, completed in 1856 and now the Dorchester Hotel. G.F. Waagen, the art historian, catalogued the portrait under the name of Sebastiano del Piombo.

Robert Henry Benson married Robert Holford’s daughter, Evelyn and the couple acquired almost one hundred Renaissance paintings, particularly Venetian works. It can be advanced that the Portrait of a Man listed under Giulio Campi as ‘Mr. Robert Benson’ in the North Italian Painters of 1907 refers to the present painting (B. Berenson, North Italian Painters of the Renaissance, New York 1907, p. 186). Federico Zeri, however, identifies the picture as amongst the property of Robert Holford’s son, Evelyn’s brother George Lindsay. The Benson collection changed hands in July 1927 when it was acquired for the significant sum of two and a half million dollars by Joseph Duveen, a key figure in the birth of the modern art market.

Many of the works from the Benson collection are now conserved in prestigious museums including the Holy Family by Giorgione and the Madonna and Child by Antonello da Messina, both in the National Gallery of Art, Washington; the panels representing Saint Catherine and Saint Jerome from the Griffoni polyptych from San Petronio, Bologna, today in the Fondazione Cini, Venice, and The Departure of Christ from Mary by Correggio in the National Gallery, London, as well as the Susanna and the Elders by Lorenzo Lotto in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence.

We are grateful to Beatrice Tanzi for her help in cataloguing the present painting.