Portrait of Fino Fini (1431–1519), half-length, holding a book,
inscribed on the book: In Iuda…flaggelum,
oil on panel, 68.5 x 48 cm, framed
on the reverse: seal of the Farnese family with an inventory number and the seal of the Accademia di Belle Arti of Parma

Provenance:
probably donated by Daniele Fini (circa 1460–1550), son of Fino Fini, to Pope Paul III Farnese;
probably Palazzo Farnese, Rome, until 1662;
probably Palazzo del Giardino, Parma, from 1662;
Private European collection 

Documentation:
probably Inventory of Palazzo Farnese, Rome, 1644, no. 4288: ‘Un quadro in tavola con cornice dorata, dentro al quale è dipinto un ritratto d’un Religioso con libro in mano, mano antica esquisita’;
probably Archivio di Stato di Parma, Raccolta manoscritti, no. 86, Inventory of Palazzo Farnese, Rome, 1653, no. 244: ‘Un quadretto in tavola con un ritratto d’huomo vecchio raso con un libro in mano con lettere flagellate(?) cornice grossa tutta dorata’;
probably [formerly] Archivio di Stato di Napoli, Nota delli quadri originali della guardarobba di S. A. S. in Roma che si mandano in Parma, 27 settembre 1662, no. 100: ‘Un quadro in tavola con un ritratto d’un uomo vecchio raso con un libro in mano con lettera Juda Flagella…(?) segnato n. 98’ (see Bertini 1987 in literature);
probably Archivio di Stato di Parma, Casa e Corte Farnesiana, s. VIII, b. 54, fasc. 4, Inventario de’ Quadri esistenti nel Pallazzo del Giardino, circa 1680, no. 572: ‘Un quadro alto braccia uno, oncie tre, largo oncie undeci in tavola. Rittratto d’huomo attempato, tiene nella sinistra un libro, in cui è scritto Juda flagellum, si dice Nicolò Machiavelli, di… n. 98’

Exhibited:
Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, La via al Principe: Machiavelli da Firenze a San Casciano, 10 December 2013 – 28 February 2014, no. 2.2a

Literature:
G. Bertini, La Galleria del Duca di Parma. Storia di una Collezione, Cinisello Balsamo 1987, p. 212, no. 244, p. 226, no. 100 and p. 260, no. 572;
B. Jestaz, Le Palais Farnèse. III. L’Inventaire du palais et des propriété Farnèse à Rome en 1644, Rome 1994, p. 169, no. 4288;
G. Bertini, Il ritrovato ritratto di Fino Fini (1431-1519) proveniente dalla quadreria di Palazzo Farnese di Roma, in: Mélanges de l’École française de Rome. Italie et mediterranée, CVIII, 1, 1996, pp. 377-379 (as Ferrarese artist, first two decades of the 16th Century);
E. Negro/N. Roio, Francesco Francia e la sua scuola, Modena 1998, p. 33, fig. 56 (as Benvenuto Tisi, il Garofalo);
F. de Luca, in: S. Alessandrini et al. (eds.), La via al Principe: Machiavelli da Firenze a San Casciano, exhibition catalogue, Florence 2013, pp. 61-62, no. 2.2a (as Benvenuto Tisi, il Garofalo)

The present painting most probably belonged to the prestigious collection of the Farnese in Rome, as shown by the seal on the back representing a lily, the family’s emblem. Two of their seventeenth century inventories, of 1644 and 1653 respectively, describe a work without dimensions that could be identified as the portrait under discussion here (see documentation).

The present painting was apparently then moved to the Palazzo del Giardino in Parma in 1662 along with a group of other works, among which the names of various celebrated artists, including Titian, Sebastiano del Piombo, Carracci and Andrea del Sarto, are especially notable, thereby possibly implying how the present painting was at this time also considered among the most important of the collection. In the document that lists these paintings moved to Parma, this portrait can be identified as number 98, possibly the number that is still partially visible on the reverse of the present panel. This number also appears in the description of the painting in an inventory of the Palazzo del Giardino drawn up around 1680, in which its measurements are given, and these correspond exactly with those of this panel (see documentation). It is likely that the work remained in Parma after the move of the greater part of the collection to Naples at the behest of Charles III Borbone in 1734, where-after it was in private collection, as occurred to other Farnese works. The back of the painting also bears the seal of the Accademia di Belle Arti di Parma, founded by Phillip of Borbone in 1757, and it was likely added when the work was submitted for judgement by the academicians.

The present painting represents a man, half-bust length, with an aquiline nose and an assertive gaze; he holds a book in his left hand upon which can be read the words ‘In Iudaeos Flagellum’. This inscription allows the identification of the sitter as Fino Fini, the ducal treasurer of the Este of Ferrara; the painting was likely made in the area of the court at Ferrara during the early years of the Cinquecento which has led to a proposed attribution to Benvenuto Tisi, il Garofalo. Fino Fini spent the last years of his life composing the In Iudaeos Flagellum ex Sacris Scripturis excerptum which was published posthumously in Venice by his son Daniele in 1538: the frontispiece of the volume includes an engraving representing the author which probably derives from the present painting. Giuseppe Bertini (1996, see literature) has proposed that the work entered the Farnese collection thanks to Daniele Fini, whom he suggests, gave it to Paul III along with a copy of his father’s book.

Curiously, during the years following the publication of Fino Fini’s book, his portrait engraving was reused in various editions of the writings of Niccolò Machiavelli, thereby giving rise to the misidentification of the Florentine scholar’s features (see F. de Luca 2013 in literature); demonstrating this confusion, the description of the present painting in the inventory of the Palazzo del Giardino in Parma identifies the sitter as Machiavelli.