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Catalogue raisonné: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, 
Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 1:

FORMER INV. NOS.: 346 (M. 1796–97); 3 (F. 1798); 481 (M. 1804);
KM 962.

TECHNICAL NOTES: The support is a single piece of densely
woven, plain-weave linen fabric. It has a red ground that covers
the whole support. It has been lined with glue and mounted on
a non-original stretcher. The pa int layers are abraded and overcleaned,
and the impasto parts (brushstrokes) are flattened due to
the lining process. There are several discoloured retouches. Documented
restorations: 1835: Restored; 1920: Cleaned, dirt and yellowed
varnish removed. Hole (tear) mended, varnish.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Röök 1841, p. 3; NM Cat. 1867, p. 1 (as Alessandro
Allori); Sander 1872–76, III, p. 138, no. 481 (as Sebastiano del Piombo);
NM Cat. 1990, p. 419 (as anonymous, 17th century); Prytz and
Eriksson 2010, p. 82 (as unknown artist, 17th century).

A friar dressed in a black cloak (cappa) over a
white habit of the Dominican order is sitting
with a crucifix in his right hand, against a dark
background. The portrait is first documented in
Fredenheim’s catalogue from 1798, which is based
on Martelli’s original inventory, under the title
“Agnole Bronzino, Portrait d’un Domenicain”,
with the original inventory number 346.¹ As there
is no painting of Bronzino in the catalogue from
1804, it seems probable that Corvi and Tofanelli
had reattributed the portrait to Sebastiano del
Piombo in the late 18th century.² In a list of missing
paintings from 1810, Louis Masreliez mentions
a Bronzino missing from the original catalogue
and a portrait of Sebastiano del Piombo added
to the collection.³ This is in all certainty the same
painting, and it was subsequently given the Royal
Museum number KM 962 in the 1816 catalogue.
The painting was given the present number, NM
10, in 1861.⁴

 In the 20th century the painting was attributed
to an anonymous painter, and in the illustrated
1990 Nationalmuseum catalogue European paintings
it was given the title Portrait of a Man. The
dress at any rate points to the earlier and more
precise title of Portrait of a Dominican Friar, and
there is no reason to doubt that it is indeed such a
portrait.

The earlier attributions to Agnolo Bronzino
and later to Sebastiano del Piombo are tempting.
The portrait has some similarities to those of del
Piombo, although it does not share the realism
and presence of most of his portraits. The geometric,
almost oval shape of the friar’s head and
his relatively pale and cold features have more in
common with the Mannerist style of Bronzino
and his workshop.⁵ But as Bronzino mainly painted
members of the Medici court, the Portrait of
a Dominican Friar seems a bit odd and stands
out from his oeuvre of princely portraits. But if
we turn to Bronzino’s pupils, we find painters
who portrayed less prominent individuals. One of
them is Alessandro Allori. In a Self-Portrait, now
in the Galleria degli Uffizi, some characteristics
of the painting of the Dominican friar are found.
Allori has portrayed himself against a very dark
background, and the smooth and calm features
of his face are contrasted with his more elaborate
hands. These characteristics recur in other portraits
by Allori, and an attribution to Bronzino’s
foremost pupil or his circle is thus a more plausible
hypothesis.

1 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Catalogue du Cabinet
de Martelli (à Rome).
2 Prytz and Eriksson 2010, pp. 82–83.
3 NM Archives, Kongl. Museum, F:1, Note des Tableaux
arrivés d’Italie e NM 10 t Deposés au Museum, 1810.
4 Prytz and Eriksson 2010, p. 82.
5 For recent research on Bronzino and his workshop see:
Pilliod 2001; Brock 2002; McCorquodale 2005; Falciani and
Natali 2010, especially the link to his disciple Alessandro
Allori, called the second Bronzino, pp. 323–334.
[end]

Foto: Erik Cornelius / Nationalmuseum 2010

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