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Portrait of Diego de Guevara (?)
Michael Sittow·c. 1515/1518
Historical Context
Moretto da Brescia's Madonna and Child with Saints (c. 1535) belongs to the category of altarpieces he produced throughout his career for Brescia's parish churches and private patrons. Working in a city that lacked the grand papal and royal patronage of Rome, Venice, or Florence, Moretto depended on the sustained demand of local ecclesiastical and civic institutions to sustain his practice. His altarpieces are distinguished by a quality of quiet devotional seriousness that reflects Brescia's position as a city caught between Venetian political control and the early Reformation currents filtering from Germany and Switzerland — a border culture that made religious images particularly charged objects of contested devotion.
Technical Analysis
Sittow's oil on panel demonstrates the exquisite precision of the Bruges school — smooth, luminous flesh tones built through delicate glazes and virtually invisible brushstrokes. The portrait achieves remarkable psychological depth through subtle rendering of the eyes and mouth.
Provenance
Probably Don Diego de Guevara [d.1520], Brussels; probably heirs of Don Diego de Guevara.[1] Probably Mencía de Mendoza, Marchioness of Zenete [d. 1554], third wife of Hendrik III of Nassau and subsequently wife of Fernando de Aragon, Duke of Calabria and viceroy of Valencia, castle of Ayora, province of Valencia.[2] Infante Don Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza [1811-1875], Pau; heirs of Don Sebastián Gabriel de Borbón y Braganza, Pau, 1876.[3] Mme. Maurer, Madrid, by 1915.[4] (Leo Blumenreich, Berlin).[5] (P. & D. Colnaghi, Ltd., London, 1929). (M. Knoedler & Co., London and New York, 1929-1930);[6] purchased March 1930 by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 28 December 1934 to The A. W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh; gift 1937 to NGA. [1] J.K. Steppe, "Het overbrengen van het hart van Filips de Schone van Burgos naar de Nederlanden in 1506-1507," _Biekorf. Westvlaams Archief_ 82 (1982), 217-218, notes that there was a dispute over the estate of Don Diego because he had made two wills. The beneficiary of the first will was his half-brother Pedro de Guevara and of the second his illegitimate son Felipe de Guevara, still a minor at the time of his father's death. Professor Steppe also states that the diptych now divided between Berlin and Washington was acquired by Mencía de Mendoza through the agency of Don Pedro. In a letter of 20 October 1981, Steppe notes that he has found the will of Don Diego (in NGA curatorial files; see also Steppe 1982 [as above], 214-215, n. 7). Steppe's publication of this and other documents related to Diego de Guevara and his circle is anticipated with the greatest interest by students of early sixteenth-century patronage. [2] Inventories of 1548 and 1554. Archivo del Palau, Barcelona, _Marquesado del Zenete_, Legajo 122, inventory of 1548, "Item, un retablico pequenyo de dos tablas; en la una esta una pintura de Nuestra Señora con su hijo en brassos y en la otra don Diego de Guevara con una ropa enforrada..., tiene la pintura todo a la redonda una orla de ora; tiene de alto la pintura media vara y de ancho las dos tres palmos e medio"; see J.K. Steppe, "Jheronimus Bosch. Bijdrage tot de historische en de ikonografische studie van zijn werk," in _Jheronimus Bosch. Bijdragen bij gelegenheid van de herdendstentoonstelling te 's-Hertogensbosch_, (Eindhoven, 1967), 39, n. 80; and Steppe 1982 (as in n. 1 above), 218, n. 17, in which the entry from the inventory taken after Mencía's death is also quoted, "Item un retaule ab dos portes, en la una porta esta pintada la verge Maria ab son fill in los brasos y en laltra esta pintada don Diego de Guevara ab una roba forrada de pells." Apparently an artist's name was noted in these inventories only when it could be read on the work itself; see Steppe 1967, 13. These inventories have not been published in their entirety. Mencía de Mendoza's heir was Don Luis de Requesens [d. 1576]. [3] _Catalogue abrégé des tableaux exposés dans les salons de l'ancien asile de Pau appartenant aux héritiers de feu Mgr l'Infant don Sébastien de Bourbon et Bragance_ (Pau, 1876), 71, no. 631, as by Holbein. This catalogue was located with the help of Nicole Reynaud. [4] See Max J. Friedländer, "Ein neu erworbenes Madonnenbild im Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum," _Amtliche Berichte aus den königl. Kunstsammlungen_ 36 (1915), 179; and Francisco Javier Sánchez Cantón, "El retablo de la Reina Católica," _Archivo Español de Arte y Arqueología_ 6 (1930), 117. [5] Max J. Friedländer, "Neues über den Meister Michiel und Juan de Flandes," _Der Cicerone_ 21 (1929), 254. [6] The Getty Provenance Index lists the Matthiesen Gallery as having the painting until 1928, with the remark, "Source: PI: Colnaghi's". For Colnaghi, it gives the dates of ownership as 1928-1929, remarking, "from Matthiesen; joint account; Colnaghi's bought Matthiesen's remaining half share 1929/Source: PI: joint ownership from Colnaghi's." For Knoedler's it notes, "from Colnaghi's; joint account; sold by Knoedler's in New York/Source: PI: joint ownership from Knoedler's and Colnaghi's."
