Der Doge Francesco Erizzo (1566-1646)

Francesco Erizzo served as Doge of Venice from 1631 to 1646, and Strozzi painted this official portrait shortly after Erizzo's election in 1631 — the year Venice was also devastated by a plague epidemic that killed roughly a third of the city's population. Strozzi had arrived in Venice around 1630, and this commission from or for Venice's head of state marked his rapid integration into the city's highest patronage circles. The dogal portrait was a highly formalised genre: the sitter wore specific ceremonial robes (the corno ducale headgear, the ducal mantle), and the pose adhered to traditions established by Titian and later Tintoretto. Strozzi negotiates these conventions with his customary psychological alertness — Erizzo is presented as an ageing but alert statesman rather than a timeless symbol of office. The Kunsthistorisches Museum holds this as one of the key examples of seventeenth-century Venetian portraiture in its collection.

The distinctive golden-yellow ducal robes required precise handling of reflective silk, and Strozzi renders the fabric's sheen through layered warm glazes over a lighter ground. The face receives the most careful attention, with fine detail in the eyes and skin texture. The composition's vertical axis, typical of official portraiture, positions the sitter with quiet authority.