Portrait of a Man (recto); A Male Torso in Jacket and the Head of a Child (verso)

Giuseppe Ghislandi, called Fra Vittore Galgario, is an accomplished late Baroque North-Italian painter who was mainly active in the city of Bergamo, and who was especially famous in his day as a naturalistic portraitist. The present sheet is an excellent example of Fra Galgario's draftsmanship. Few studies for portraits illustrate a variety of stages in his design of portraits, since drawings by this artist are extremely rare. The attribution of this piece is fairly certain, since the portrait of the man seen on the recto is closely comparable to one of the most famous portraits by this artist (Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan), which dates from the 1740s.

The recto of this double-sided sheet depicts a carefully finished bust-length portrait of a man in contemporary 18th century dress in a three-quarter view facing to the right. The naturalistic treatment of the sitter is typical of the late Baroque, Bergamasque school of painting. The verso of the sheet shows a more freely drawn study for the dressed torso of a man turned in a nearly profile view to the right and a softly rendered study of a child's head in near profile also facing to the right.

(C.C.B.)

Credit: Anonymous Gift, 2002