Portrait of Galeotto IV Pico della Mirandola (1603–1637), bust-length,
oil on canvas, 61 x 47.5 cm, framed

Having only recently reappeared and hitherto unknown to scholars, this elegant portrait is remarkable for its painterly quality and is historically fascinating. It refers to a full-length portrait from a series of portraits of members of the ducal families of the Este and Pico, now at the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua (oil on canvas, 219 x 144 cm).

The series, intended to decorate the ducal palace in Mirandola, was transferred to Mantua in 1716. The identification of the sitters in the series has been a subject of debate. As a case in point, several different identifications have been proposed for the sitter in the present work. However, recently, a definitive reference to a portrait in the Mirandola inventory of 1649 seems to suggest that the present sitter can be identified as Galeotto IV Pico.

Most of the portraits of the Mirandola series, although they are of varying quality, have been attributed to Sante Peranda (1566–1638). Sante Peranda was a Venetian painter, trained by Jacopo Palma and Paolo Fiammingo. He became court painter to the Pico della Mirandolas in 1608 and remained in their service until 1627. Graziella Martinelli Braglia attributes several portraits in the series to Peranda, but also to Peranda’s son Michelangelo. Derivations and variations after the series are known to have been commissioned very soon after its creation.

Galeotto’s father was Alessandro I Pico della Mirandola (1566–1637), principe della Mirandola, marchese di Concordia, and later duca della Mirandola. Alessandro had married Maria Laura d’Este (1590–1630), daughter of Cesare d’Este, duca di Modena and Reggio, and of Virginia de’ Medici, in 1607. This prestigious marriage was undoubtedly instrumental in Alessandro’s elevation to the dukedom twelve years later, although he still had to pay the immense sum of 100.000 Florin for the desired imperial decree. Alessandro I had an illegitimate son, Galeotto, from his affair with the Ferrarese noblewoman Eleonora Segni. By imperial decree, Galeotto was legitimised as heir to the Mirandola dukedom. He married Maria Cybo-Malaspina, with whom he had seven surviving children, one of them being his son Alessandro, who would succeed his grandfather as Duke, as Galeotto IV died shortly before his father, in 1637. Alessandro II married Anna Beatrice d’Este. Mirandola was an independent principality close to Modena, ruled by the Pico family and elevated to a dukedom by Emperor Matthias in 1619. It became part of the Este-Modena dukedom in the early eighteenth century.

We are grateful to Paolo Bertelli for his help in cataloguing this lot.