Jacopo Robusti, called Jacopo Tintoretto

Don Gaspar de Haro y Guzman (1629-1687), 7^th Marques del Carpio, 3^rd Marques de Heliche, 6^th Conde and 4^th Duque de Olivares;
Prince Brancaccio, Rome;
Sold Paris, Sedelmeyer, 3-5 June 1907, lot 189 (as by Titian);
Private Collection, Switzerland.

Marques del Carpio inventory, Naples 1687, no. 274;
A. Venturi, Oeuvres d'art de la collection du Prince Brancaccio de Rome, Rome 1903, pp. 65-66 (as by Titian);
P. Rossi, Tintoretto, I Ritratti, Venice 1974, vol. I, p. 132, reproduced fig. 57;
P. Rossi, Tintoretto, I. Ritratti, Milan 1990, Vol. I, p. 140, no. 156;
M.B. Burke and P. Cherry, Collections of Paintings in Madrid, vol. I, Los Angeles 1997, p. 734, no. 76 and p. 826, no. 274;
L. de Frutos, El templo de la fama, alegoria del Marques del Carpio, Madrid 2009, p.328.

The following condition report is provided by Hamish Dewar, who is an external expert and not an employee of Sotheby's. UNCONDITIONAL AND WITHOUT PREJUDICE Structural Condition The canvas has an old lining, which is inscribed on the reverse, and is providing a secure and stable structural support. Paint Surface The paint surface has an even varnish layer. Inspection under ultra-violet light shows a number of comparatively recent retouchings, the most significant of which are: 1) a concentrated area comprising of many lines and spots of inpainting which combine to make a large area of retouching in the dark clouds to the right of the sitter's head, with other retouchings in the dark landscape between the sitter and the right vertical framing edge, the largest of which is in the lower right of the composition. 2) an area on the sitter's black cloak which measures approximately 13 x 10 cm at its widest point, with other retouchings on his costume, 3) small spots and lines of inpainting on the sitter's black cap and retouchings on his moustache and beard, 4) retouchings on the upper and lower horizontal framing edges and small retouchings in the dark pigments in the upper left of the composition. There are other scattered retouchings. There may be other retouchings beneath the varnish layers which are not identifiable under ultra-violet light. Summary The painting would therefore appear to be in reasonably good and stable condition and no further work is required.
"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."

This confident and impressive portrait, was published by Rossi in 1974 and 1990, and its attribution has subsequently been endorsed by both Professor Peter Humfrey and Frederick Illchman, on the basis of photographs.  General consensus dates it to the 1550s when Tintoretto was much influenced by his fellow Venetian, Titian. 

Stylistically the present work can be closely compared to Tintoretto's Portrait of a Youth in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, dated 1551.¹  Both works share the same confident handling of paint and both sitters look out of the canvas with an admirably conveyed sense of youthful self-assurance.  Tintoretto's greatest talent as a portraitist lay in his ability to infuse his portraits with character despite a general lack of adornment to either sitter or setting.   Here, as with so many of his portraits, Tintoretto gives us no clue to the identity of this poised young gentleman.  He stands erect in front of a curtain and an anonymous landscape clothed in an unspecific black costume.  The unusual hat with its ornate brooch was not commonly seen on Venetian sitters of this period and has led some to suggest that the sitter was a visitor to Venice rather than a native of the city. 

X-rays of the painting reveal a version of Titian's Portrait of Caterina Sandella underneath the present work and although it is not clear why Tintoretto would be painting this work on top of a Titian copy it is interesting to note that Tintoretto also painted a portrait of Caterina Sandella during this decade, dated by Rossi to 1552-3.²

The ducal coronet and initials D.G.H stamped on the reverse are of the Spanish grandee Don Gaspar de Haro y Guzmán who was the son of Luis Méndez de Haro, 6th Marquis of Carpio and Catalina, youngest daughter of Enrique de Córdoba Cardona y Aragón.  His great uncle was the Duke of Olivares, prime minister, and the most influential grandee at the court of Philip IV until his fall from office in 1643.  Don Gaspar begun a career at court and was later appointed Spanish Ambassador to the Holy See and then Viceroy of Naples.³  He began collecting art during his time at the Spanish court but it was his posting to Italy that enabled him to indulge more fully in his passion for collecting.  He built one of the most important collections of the second half of the 17^th century which as well as the present painting included: Velazquez's Rokeby Venus (National Gallery, London); Raphael's Alba Madonna  (National Gallery of Art, Washington); Titian's Danaë (Prado, Madrid); Giorgone's Allegory of Chastity (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam) and Antonello da Messina's Christ Crowned with Thorns (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).  On his death he left a collection of three thousand paintings, one thousand two hundred in Naples and one thousand eight hundred in Spain.⁴

Don Gaspar de Haro owned the largest number of paintings by Tintoretto recorded in any Spanish collection.  The 1682 inventory of his collection in Rome lists 150 paintings by the artist and whilst the 1687 inventory done at his death in Naples is not as comprehensive in listing attributions the name Tintoretto frequently recurs.  The inventory number 274 painted on the back of the canvas refers to the 1687 inventory. Although attempts have been made to link the present work to individual entries in the 1682 inventory these have proved inconclusive as there are a number of descriptions that could fit. 

1. See P. Rossi, Tintoretto, I Ritratti, Milan 1990, vol. I, p. 117, figs. 61-2;
2. Ibid., pp. 40, 132, fig. 84.
3. J. Elliot, 'Review of El templo de la fama, alegoria del Marques del Carpio,' in Burlington Magazine, vol. CLIII, March 2011, no. 1296, p. 186.
4. J. Brown, Kings and Conoisseurs. Collecting Art in the Seventeenth Century in Europe, Yale 1995, pp. 95, 139.