Simon Vouet

Cardinal Giangiacomo Trivulzio (1597–1656), Milan;

By descent to Marchese Annibale Brivio Sforza;

Private collection.

Paris, Galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Valentin et les Caravagesques français,  1974, no. 36.

R. Levi Pisetzky, Storia del costume in Italia, vol. III, Milan 1966, reproduced fig. 165 (as anonymous);

J.-P. Cuzin, 'Jeunes gens par Simon Vouet et quelques autres. Notes sur Vouet portraitiste en Italie', in La Revue du Louvre et des Musées de France, XXIX, 1979, 1, pp. 16, 18, reproduced fig. 5;

E. Testori, 'Deux portraits inédits de la période romaine de Simon Vouet', in S. Loire, Rencontres de l'École du Louvre. Simon Vouet, Paris 1992, pp. 92–96, reproduced p. 95, fig. 3;

F. Petrucci, Pittura di Ritratto a Roma. Il Seicento, Rome 2007, vol. III, reproduced p. 784, fig. 799;

A. Morandotti, 'Vouet à Milan et l'École Lombarde', in Simon Vouet en Italie, Rennes 2011, pp. 120–22, reproduced p. 120, fig. 1 (reproduction inverted).

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar who is an external specialist and not an employee of Sotheby's: Structural Condition The canvas has been lined onto a new keyed wooden stretcher and this is ensuring a secure structural support. Stretcher-bar lines and an earlier reduced turnover edge are visible parallel to the four framing edges. Paint surface The paint surface has a rather uneven and opaque varnish layer and would benefit from cleaning and revarnishing. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a number of retouchings, many of which would appear to be rather excessive and could undoubtedly be reduced with more careful and minimal retouching should they be removed during the cleaning process. The most significant of these retouchings are: 1) on and around the old turnover edges with a number of retouchings relating to the old tack holes, 2) retouchings in the sitter's hair, 3) retouchings in the upper left and right of the background and 4) a small discoloured retouching just to the right of the sitter's mouth which measures approximately 0.5 cm in diameter. There are other scattered retouchings Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in good and stable condition and should respond well to cleaning, restoration and revarnishing.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Painted by Simon Vouet in Rome around 1622, this portrait has only relatively recently been rediscovered. One of its first owners, if not its first, was the Milanese Cardinal Giangiacomo Trivulzio in whose family it remained for many years. Vouet was one of the leading painters in Rome following the death of Caravaggio in 1610 and was largely responsible for the dissemination of the Italian baroque style in France following his return there in 1627.

It was Dominique Cordellier who recognised the portrait as the work of the young Vouet, chancing upon it in a book on Italian costume published in 1966.¹ Having been subsequently published by Jean-Pierre Cuzin in the Revue du Louvre, Edoardo Testori discovered that it and another portrait by Vouet (depicting Henri Traivoel) of precisely the same size had come from the ancient Trivulzio collection. Cardinal Giangiacomo Trivulzio was a great connoisseur collector from Milan and a close friend of Pope Urban VIII. Though Vouet passed through Milan in November 1621, and stayed for a few weeks or so, it is not certain that he executed either portrait there at the command of Trivulzio, although it is interesting to note that another portrait by Vouet of similar style and date also enjoys early Milanese provenance.²

Vouet’s early Roman portraits, like the present example, are animated and moody, governed by an effective use of chiaroscuro, the dark areas often nearly black, the highlights rich in white, creamy paint. They have a spontaneity about them which here manifests itself almost as if the portrait was painted dal vivo. A powerful source of light illuminates one side of the young man’s face and strikes the folds and frills of his rapidly executed ruff; this is a ruff alla lattuga that was particularly popular in Rome between 1620–24.³ The exaggerated light and dark lends a somewhat sinister air to the portrait, but imbues the sitter with the tenacity and vigour of a cavelier; he is, as Cuzin wrote of him, ‘un bel Athos amer et soupçonneux’.⁴

The painting will be included in the forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the works of Simon Vouet currently being prepared by Arnauld Brejon de Lavergnée.

1. See Levi Pisetzky 1966.

2. In the collection of Gerolamo Etro, Milan. See Morandotti 2011, p. 121, reproduced fig. 4.

3. Testori 1992, p. 94.

4. Cuzin 1979.