Portrait of Bindo Altoviti

This Portrait of Bindo Altoviti from 1850 at the Musée Ingres-Bourdelle is Ingres's copy after Raphael's famous portrait, an act of homage to the master whose example governed his entire artistic philosophy. Raphael occupied the summit of Ingres's personal hierarchy of painters, surpassing even the ancients in his synthesis of beauty, harmony, and perfection, and copying his works was an act of devotion as much as study. Ingres had been copying Raphael since his student years in Rome, and these acts of engaged study were fundamental to his development and his artistic values. His smooth oil handling and precise contours translated the Renaissance original into his own Neoclassical idiom while preserving the essential qualities he most admired in Raphael: the perfect clarity of form, the harmonious color, the serene idealization. The Musée Ingres-Bourdelle holds this copy alongside other Raphaelesque studies and Ingres's own history paintings, illuminating the continuous dialogue between the master and his model.

The copy demonstrates Ingres's careful study of Raphael's portrait technique. His smooth handling and precise contours translate the Renaissance original into his own Neo-classical idiom.