Live Auction 2855Old Master Paintings
Domenico Tintoretto (Venice 1560-1635)
Lot 18

Domenico Tintoretto (Venice 1560-1635)

Portrait of Giovanni Paolo Contarini, three-quarter length, in a red ermine-lined robe

Closed4 June 2014

Price Realised

USD 173,000

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Domenico Tintoretto (Venice 1560-1635)
Portrait of Giovanni Paolo Contarini, three-quarter length, in a red ermine-lined robe
inscribed 'MDXCIIII IOAN PAVL COTARE. PROC.' (upper right)
oil on canvas
44 3/8 x 34 in. (112.7 x 86.4 cm.)

with Arthur Seligman, Rey & Co., New York, 1936, as J. Tintoretto. Private collection, Bavaria.
with Knoedler, New York.
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, New York, 3 June 1988, lot 63, as Jacopo Tintoretto.
Anonymous sale; Christie's, New York, 12 January 1996, as Jacopo Tintoretto ($90,500; sold after the sale).

Specialist note

We are grateful to Frederick Ilchman, who has identified this striking picture as "an important rediscovery of a distinguished portrait" by Domenico Tintoretto, close in style to Domenico's group portrait of 1591 showing the members of the Scuola dei Mercanti (Accademia, Venice, invs. 872, 873; private communication, working from photographs, 23 April 2014). Painted in 1594 - the year Domenico's father Jacopo died - it represents Giovanni Paolo Contarini, who was appointed Procurator on 24 September 1594. Contarini likely commissioned the present picture from Domenico, then perhaps the finest portraitist working in Venice, to celebrate his new title.