The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of April 25, 2024

Portrait of an Old Man

Portrait of an Old Man

mid-1500s

attributed to Giulio Campi

(Italian, c. 1500–1572)
Italy, 16th century
oil on wood
Framed: 120.7 x 91.4 x 11.4 cm (47 1/2 x 36 x 4 1/2 in.); Unframed: 92.4 x 63.5 cm (36 3/8 x 25 in.)
Holden Collection 1916.794
Location: not on view

Description

Part of a distinguished family of Northern northern Italian painters, Campi depicts his sitter with an unidealized face dominated by carefully observed wrinkles. He stares out intently while grasping what may be a letter with its paper seal broken in his right hand. Despite this intense gaze the figure does not establish a lively connection with the viewer, and his mood remains distant and reserved, in keeping with Renaissance ideas about elegant comportment. Though his costume appears plain, the sumptuous black fabric was indicative of high status in some parts of Europe. --Michele Frederick (December 2011)
  • Gino Capponi Gallery (Florence, Italy)
    James Jackson Jarves
    Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, 1883, by gift to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1916.
  • The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p 315; Mentioned: p. 314
    Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917. Mentioned: p. 36, cat. no. 39 archive.org
    Moro, Franco and Filippo Maria Ferro. Caravaggio sconosciuto: le origini del Merisi, eccellente disegnatore, maestro di ritratti e di cose naturali. Torino : Umberto Allemandi, 2016.
    Cifani, Arabella. "Un Esploratore Solitario nei Territori Ignoti di Caravaggio." Il giornale dell'arte 34, no.370 (December 2016). Mentioned: 23-[25]; Reproduced: p. [25], top row, last image
  • Boston, 1883. American Exhibition of Foregin Products, Arts, and Maufctures: Art Department, "Jarves Collection," cat. no. 426.
    The Cleveland Art Loan Exhibition, Jan. 1884, no. 13
    The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).
    CMA: The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition, no. 79 (as Giulio Campi?), 1936
    Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).
    CMA: The Inaugural Exhibition, cat. no. 39, (as Venetian School, 16th century...very much in the manner of Tintoretto), 1916
  • {{cite web|title=Portrait of an Old Man|url=false|author=Giulio Campi|year=mid-1500s|access-date=25 April 2024|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1916.794