(Venice 1429–1507)
Portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo,
oil on canvas, 65 x 51.5 cm, framed

Provenance (according to labels on the reverse):
Louis-Philippe, King of the French (1773–1850);
his sale, Christie & Manson, London, 20 May 1853, lot 356 (as ‘Bellini’);
John Charles William Sawbridge-Erle-Drax (1893–1982), Bilting House, Kent;
possibly his sale, Christie, Manson & Wood, London, 10 May 1935, lot 71 (as ‘Bellini’);
Private collection, Germany

Possible Literature:
Notice des Tableaux de la Galerie Espagnole exposés dans les salles du Musée Royal au Louvre, Paris 1838, p. 107, cat. no. 421 (as Giovanni Bellini)

The present painting relates to the Portrait of Doge Giovanni Mocenigo by Gentile Bellini in the Museo Correr, Venice. Another version is conserved in the Frick Collection, New York (inv. no. 1926.1.02).

Giovanni Mocenigo (1408–1485) was Doge of Venice from 1478 to 1485. He came from the influential, Mocenigo family, who owned numerous palaces and properties along the Grand Canal and provided a total of seven Doges. Under Giovanni Mocenigo’s reign, Venice made peace with the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in 1479, after 16 years of war. He also fought against Ercole I d’Este, Duke of Ferrara, from whom he recaptured Rovigo and the Polesine.

In the present painting the Doge is depicted in profile wearing precious ermine fur with gold embroidered fabric on his collar and a ducale corno hat – clothing reserved for the most splendid occasions. The bust-length representation recalls classical marble busts of emperors and this traditional view in profile is characteristic of official portraiture, nevertheless it did not prevent the artist from emphasising the sitter’s individual features.

Gentile was the eldest son of Jacopo Bellini and the brother of Giovanni Bellini. He was an important figure in Venetian art production for several decades in the second half of the fifteenth century and is known particularly for portraits and large narrative paintings in which the city and its inhabitants are depicted in great detail. The culmination of Gentile’s role as an official portrait painter was his mission for the Signoria in 1479 to the court of the Sultan Mehmed II in Constantinople. After one year, he returned to Venice, richly rewarded.