(Antwerp 1569–1622 Paris)
Portrait of Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua (1562–1612),
oil on canvas, 76.5 x 66.8 cm, framed

Provenance:
possibly Collection of Sir James Murray-Pulteney, 7th Bart;
his sale, Christie’s, London, 20 June 1820;
Private collection, USA;
sale, Sotheby’s, New York, 26 May 2016, lot 21 (as Studio of Frans Pourbus II);
where acquired by the present owner

Frans Pourbus’s variants of this composition (Rome, private collection and Dresden, Gemäldegalerie) are discussed in B. Ducos, Frans Pourbus le Jeune 1599-1622, Dijon 2011, p. 203, cat. no. P.A. 18, reproduced, and p. 205, cat. no. 21, reproduced.

Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, was an immensely influential patron and collector who, keen to cultivate a more visible role for his duchy on the larger European stage, fostered a culturally sophisticated and luxurious court by securing the services of internationally famous artists, mostly Pourbus and the young Rubens, both of whom joined the court in 1600.

In the early years of the seventeenth century, there were more than 500 mouths to feed registered at the ducal palace, made up of painters, actors, musicians, poets, singers, composers, scientists and many others. Of Pourbus it was said that the Duke kept him with every term and dignity and hired him, on an annual salary, as the painter with the golden key, according to Federico Zuccari, who met him at court, suggesting that Pourbus had the rare privilege of being entrusted with the run of the palace. While Pourbus was employed primarily to produce portraits of the Duke and his family, Rubens was to paint primarily religious and mythological works, and his small corpus of portraiture from the earliest years of the seventeenth century owed a clear debt to Pourbus, who had a formative influence over his great Antwerp compatriot.

Vincenzo Gonzaga was the son of Duke Guglielmo X, 3rd Duke of Mantua, and Archduchess Eleonore of Austria. His maternal grandparents were Emperor Ferdinand I and Princess Anna of Bohemia and Hungary. He married Margherita Farnese in 1581, however, their marriage was childless and they soon separated. In 1584, he married his first cousin Eleonora de’ Medici, daughter of Francesco I de’ Medici and Johanna of Austria, by whom he had six children. Since 1587 Vincenzo was reigning Duke of Mantua.

Vincenzo’s court was of famous extravagance, not least for the art collection amassed by the Duke and his forebears. Between 1627 and 1630 a big part of the collection was sold to King Charles I of England, while the rest was scattered following the sacking of the Ducal palace in 1630 by Imperial troups during a dispute over the Gonzaga succession. Consisting of well over 2,000 paintings and more than 20,000 bronzes, marbles, medals, coins, arms, ceramics, manuscripts, books and other objects, the Gonzaga collection was one of the greatest ever amassed.

There can be no doubt that whilst under the employment of the Gonzaga, Pourbus consistently produces his finest works. The portraits from this period have a distinct and deep richness of palette, and are imbued with an element of dark drama that gives them an intensity which is not present in the court portraits that Pourbus would go on to paint in the final chapter of his career in Paris. Due to the Duke’s importance and Pourbus’ position at his court, the artist was commissioned to make several portraits of Gonzaga and his wife Eleonora de’ Medici. In the present painting, as in full length, the Duke proudly wears the Order of the Golden Fleece around his neck, conferred by Philipp II of Spain in 1589.