(Florence circa 1540–1606/1608)
Portrait of a cardinal, half-length, possibly Filippo Boncompagni (1548–1586),
oil on panel, 121.8 x 92.3 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Carlo Falciani for suggesting the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

The present painting is a recent addition to the oeuvre of the Florentine painter Giovanni Maria Butteri, probably depicting the Cardinal Filippo Boncompagni (1548–1586). The sitter was appointed cardinal at the age of only 23 years by his uncle, Pope Gregory XIII. His features, the aquiline nose, the high forehead and receding hairline are known from a portrait by Bartolomeo Passerotti dated to 1573–74, in a private collection, as well as from a bronze medal.

The sitter is depicted in three quarter length, slightly turned, in front of a dark background, wearing a white rochet under a voluptuous red cloak over his shoulders and the typical cardinal’s biretta. The focus on the details of the garments are typical characteristics of Butteri’s style of painting: the sculptural fabric, the decorative embroidery on the cuffs, as well as the depiction of the undergarment achieved by a glazing paint application and delicate brushstrokes. Thicker brushwork is visible in the pronounced veins on the back of the hands as well as in the background curtain. The drawn appearance of the sitter is comparable to the Holy Family with Saint Anne and the Members of the Medici Family from 1575 (Florence, Cenacolo di Andrea del Sarto) and to the Christ healing the Centurion’s servant in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence. The facial features are comparable, especially the similar shape of the eyebrows, the rosy cheeks as well as the gesture of the hands.

Giovanni Maria Butteri was a close associate and assistant to the two leading sixteenth-century Florentine portraitists, Agnolo Bronzino and Alessandro Allori. Together they worked on numerous projects including the Cavalcanti Chapel in Santo Spirito 1560, the funeral of Michelangelo in 1564, and the decorations for the wedding of Francesco de’ Medici to Johanna of Austria in 1565. Another significant commission, was a painting in 1572 depicting the Glassblower’s Workshop for the studiolo of Francesco I de’ Medici in Florence (Museo di Palazzo Vecchio, Florence).