Portrait of a young man in a slitted coat and beret, oil on canvas, oval, 62.5 x 50.5 cm, framed

Provenance:
European private collection.

Literature:
S. Bellesi, Cesare Dandini, Turin 1996, no. 25, pp. 77-78.

The present painting has been dated to the mid-1630s by Bellesi (see literature). It shows a young man who was painted by Dandini on several occasions. The sitter may have been modelled from real life and possibly be identified as Bartolomeo Landini, who was a musician at the court of the grand dukes of Tuscany at that time. This assumption is corroborated by a note in the artist’s biography, in which the author, Filippo Baldinucci, refers to “a beautiful head of a young man wearing a beret, modelled from life after Bartolommeo Landini, [...] musician” (see F. Baldinucci, Notizie de professori del disegno da Cimabue in quà, 6. vol, Florence; edited by F. Rancalli, 5 vol., Florence 1845-1847; ed. by P. Barocchi, 5 vol. with 2 vol. of appendix, Florence 1974-1975, IV, p. 557. no. 19).

Three further autograph versions of the painting are known, one now in the Depositi delle Gallerie in Florence, one in the Galleria Palatina of the Palazzo Pitti in Florence, and another in a private collection (formerly Trafalgar Galleries, London). According to Bellesi, the present painting is stylistically superior to the other versions but is distinguished from them by a more vivid treatment of light and brighter, more radiant colours. The pictoral quality of Dandini’s work is revealed in the skillfully rendered expression on the face and the soft, full lips, which are half closed, and also in the chiaroscuro, which is particularly noticeable in the beret, the plume, the coat and its collar.

Cesare Dandini was a student of Cristofano Allori, Domenico Passignano, and Francesco Curradi. For the latter, Dandini also posed as a model, as is related by Filippo Baldinucci in the artist’s biography. In 1621, Dandini enroled at the Accademia del Disegno in Florence, and as early as the 1630s he was working for numerous important patrons, including Lorenzo de’ Medici. He developed a theatrical and idealized manner of painting that combined realistic and classicist elements, both in form and colour.