Giulio Pippi, called Giulio Romano and workshop

Federico II Gonzaga, 5th Marchese and 1st Duke of Mantua (1500–1540), by whom commissioned for the Camerino dei Cesari in the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua between 1536 and 1539;

By descent to Vincenzo II Gonzaga (1594–1627), 7th Duke of Mantua, Palazzo Ducale, Mantua;

King Charles I of England (1600–1649), by whom acquired with the Gonzaga collections, including the entirety of the Camerino, in 1627–28;

Recorded by Abraham van der Doort in 1639 in the Gallery at St James's Palace, London: ‘In the Gallerie att S^t Jameses': no. 29, 'A lesser of Claudius on horsebacke by Julio [sic] Romano’, as one of seven such panels hanging in the Gallery together with seven of Titian's Emperors;

Following the King's death in 1649, among the eleven panels of Roman emperors by Giulio Romano appraised by the Trustees of his Estate at St James's Palace in February 1650 for £100;

Offered for £100 in the Somerset House list of May 1650 and subsequently sold 23 October 1651, lot 220, as part of a set of eleven for £100 to Ralph Grynder and others (‘The 11. Emp^rs at 100 – The copies add: by Giulio Romano'. Sold to Grynder a/o 23 Oct. 1651’);

The set of eleven panels – ‘Eleven Caesars on horseback in long pieces of deal boards’ – seen together in London by the antiquarian and diarist Richard Symonds (1617–1660) in 1652 with ‘Mr. Grynder the Upholsterer’;

Possibly Philippe II, Duc d'Orléans (1674–1723), Regent of France, Palais Royal, Paris;

Possibly his son Louis d'Orléans (1703–1752), Palais Royal, Paris;

Possibly Luigi Braschi-Onesti, Duke of Nemi (1745–1816), Palazzo Braschi, Rome (according to the exhibition catalogue 1996 below);

Private collection, Scandinavia;

Anonymous sale, Copenhagen, Kunsthallen, 29 August 1996, lot 7 (as Italian School, 17th century);

With Trafalgar Galleries, London (as Giulio Romano);

Thence by inheritance to the present owner. 

Recorded in the inventory dated 12 January 1627 of pictures of the Palazzo Ducale in Mantua (made when the paintings were still in situ), no. 13: ‘Dieci altri quadri dipintovi un Imperator per quadro a cavallo, opera di mano di Giulio Romano, con cornici fregiate d'oro, stimati scudi 100, L. 600.’ (as Giulio Romano);

R. Symonds, Ms Noteboook, British Museum, department of Manuscripts, Egerton MS. 1636, fol. 199; 

Possibly Ms. Inventaire après la mort du Régent, 1724, Paris, Archives Nationales, X^ia 9.162, valued at 200 livres;

Possibly L.-F. Dubois de Saint-Gelais, Description des tableaux du Palais Royal, avec la vie des peintres à la tête de leurs ouvrages, dédiée à Monseigneur le Duc d'Orléans, premier prince du sang, Archival Inventory Paris 1727, p. 279, no. 285: ‘Un Empereur à cheval. Peint sur bois, haut de deux pieds six pouces, large d'un pied huit pouces. Fig. de vingt pouces. Il est jeune, a une tunique verte avec une chlamyde ou manteau Royal d'écarlate, les jambes nues à l'antique. Il est monté sur un cheval blanc, richement équipé. Le fond du Tableau est un Paisage’ (as ‘Jules Romain’);

Possibly Ms. Inventaire après la mort du fils du Régent, 1752, Paris, Archives Nationales, X^ia 9.170, valued at 200 livres;

C. Stryienski, La Galerie du Régent Philippe, Duc d'Orléans, Paris 1913, p. 160, no. 150;

A. Luzio, La Galleria dei Gonzaga venduta all'Inghilterra nel 1627–28, Milan 1913, p. 92, no. 13 (as Giulio Romano);

O. Millar, ‘Abraham van der Doort’s Catalogue of the Collections of Charles I’, in The Walpole Society, 1958–60, vol. XXXVII, 1960, p. 227, no. 29 (as Giulio Romano);

O. Millar, ‘The Inventories and Valuations of the the King's Goods 1649–1651’, Walpole Society, vol. XLIII, 1972, p. 270, no. 220: ‘The 11 Emp^rs at £100/The copies add: by Giulio Romano. Sold to Grynder a/o 23 Oct. 1651.’;

M. Beal, A study of Richard Symonds, London 1984, p. 307;

Inventario della Raccolta Gonzaga (1626–1627), new ed. Mantua 1998, p. 51, no. 673 (as Giulio Romano);

S. Lapenta, ‘Gli "Imperatori a cavallo" e il Camerino dei Cesari (Appartamento di Troia)’, in Gonzaga, La Celeste Galleria, Le Raccolte, R. Morselli (ed.), exh. cat., Palazzo del Te, Mantua 2002, pp. 90, 172–73, no. 4, reproduced in colour p. 90, fig. 4 (as Giulio Romano);

S. Lapenta in S. Lapenta and R. Morselli, Le Collezione Gonzaga. La quadreria nell'elenco dei beni del 1626–7, Milan 2006, pp. 189–90, reproduced fig (a) (as attributed to Giulio Romano);

J. Brotton, the Sale of the Late King's Goods. Charles I and his Art Collection, London 2006, pp. 6, 141–42 and 258;

L. Whittaker and M. Clayton, The Art of Italy in the Royal Collection, Renaissance & Baroque, London 2007, pp. 144–45, reproduced in colour fig. 66 (as ‘Giulio Romano (?)’);

J. Koering, ‘Le prince et ses modèles: le gabinetto dei Cesari au palais ducal de Mantoue’, in Le Miroir et l'Espace du prince dans l'art italien au Renaissance, P. Morel (ed.), Tours 2012, p. 8 (as workshop of Giulio Romano);

J. Koering, Le prince en répresentation. Histoire des décors du palais ducal de Mantoue au XVIe siècle, Arles 2013, p. 289 (as workshop of Giulio Romano);

R. Berzaghi, ‘Nota per il gabinetto dei Cesari di Palazzo Ducale’, in Federico Gonzaga e le arti, proceedings of the conference, Archivio di Stato, Mantua, 15 November 2014, F. Mattei (ed.), Rome 2016, p. 258 (as depicting the emperor Nero);

F. Coulter, Titian's Roman Emperors for the Gabinetto dei Cesari, Mantua: A new Reconstruction and Critical Review, unpublished MA Dissertation, University College, Dublin 2016 (as workshop of Giulio Romano);

V.I. Schmid and J.I. Armstrong-Totten, The Orléans Collection, New Orleans 2018, Appendix p. 232, no. 236 (as Giulio Romano, untraced since 1788);

F. Coulter, ‘Supporting Titian's Emperors: Giulio Romano's Narrative Framework in the gabinetto dei Cesari’, in Giulio Romano, Pittore, architetto, artista universale, exhibition colloquium, Mantua and Rome 2019, p. 60 n. 5;

R. Berzaghi, ‘Con nuova e stravagante maniera’: Giulio Romano a Mantova, exh. cat., Mantua 2019, no. 62 (as Giulio Romano and studio).

London, Trafalgar Galleries, Italian Paintings from the 14^th–18^th Centuries, 2000, no. 4 (as Giulio Romano);

Mantua, Palazzo del Te, Gonzaga, La Celeste Galleria, Le Raccolte, 2 September – 8 December 2002, no. 4 (as Giulio Romano);

Mantua, Palazzo Ducale, Giulio Romano e Mantova, 6 October 2019 – 6 January 2020, no. 62 (as Giulio Romano and studio).