VITTORE GIUSEPPE GHISLANDI, CALLED FRA' GALGARIO | PORTRAIT OF A MAN, BUST LENGTH, WEARING A BLACK SILK HAT

Vittore Ghislandi entered the Order of the Minims in the monastery of Galgario in Bergamo in 1702, at the age of forty-seven, and henceforward was known by the name of the saint after whom the monastery was named. He was an Italian painter mainly active in Bergamo, who distinguished himself as a portraitist during the late Baroque and Rococo. Fra' Galgario joined the Studio of Sebastiano Bombelli in Venice circa 1690, which accounts for the vibrant colors and paint layering he developed. The palette and technique he acquired in Venice was fused with the static tradition of portraiture in Bergamo, creating a unique style that became very popular both at home and abroad. Among those who commissioned his paintings was Marshal Johann Matthias von der Schulenburg (1661–1774), perhaps the most formidable collector of the eighteenth century. 

The texture created in this work is typical of Fra' Galgario's paintings. The roundness of the eyes and fixed gaze of the sitter is reminiscent of a Testa di giovane now in a private collection, Milan.(1) What is particularly striking between these two portraits is the fold at the bottom of the chin, which is so characteristic and personalized that it makes you think if they are in fact of the same person.

1. See M.C. Gozzoli, Fra' Galgario, Bergamo 1981, reproduced p. 90.