ATTRIBUTED TO BERNARDINO DE' CONTI | Portrait of a Lady

Private collection, Frankfurt, by 1949;
(Possibly) with T. P. Grange, London, 1955;
With French & Co., New York, 1957;
Acquired there or shortly after by the father of the present owner;
Thence by descent.

W. Suida, in Leonardo da Vinci Loan Exhibition, exh. cat., Los Angeles 1949, p. 93, under cat. no. 44;
Interior Design, September 1957, p. 201, reproduced;
P. Trutty-Coohill, Studies in the School of Leonardo da Vinci: Paintings in Public Collections in the United States with a Chronology of the Activity of Leonardo and his Pupils and a Catalogue of Auction Sales, doctoral diss., Pennsylvania State University, August 1982, pp. 136 and 139, cat. no. 6;
M.T. Fiorio, ‘Per il ritratto lombardo: Bernardino de' Conti’, in Arte Lombarda, LXVIII/LXIX, 1984, p. 51, under cat. no. 45;
M.C. Passoni, 'La ritrattistica di Bernardino de’ Conti', in Le Duché de Milan et les commandataires français (1499-1521), F. Elsig and M. Natale (eds), Rome 2013, pp. 161 and 163–65, reproduced p. 175, fig. 11, infrared image fig. 14, and in colour pl. IX.

The large panel is cradled. The varnish is clear and even. There are some areas of flaking and associated losses (visible in the catalogue illustration) and one or two in the forehead and hair. The impasto of the dots in the background are nicely intact. The blacks and darker tones are somewhat thinned. The face appears to have had some restoration, all visible under UV, including some broader repaint in the shadows of the face, chin and neck. There are other smaller scattered retouchings throughout. Offered in a plain wood and gilt frame in fair condition.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Bernardino de' Conti was one of the leading portrait painters in Milan at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries, and numbered many of the city's most prominent families among his patrons. This painting is one of a group of portraits showing sitters at three-quarter length against distinctive striped backgrounds, some of which have associations with the noble Milanese family of Trivulzio. These include a portrait of the famous condottiere Gian Giacomo Trivulzio, still in the family collection, which is inscribed with the identity of the sitter, and which can be dated to 1518. A second Portrait of a Gentleman, which is in the Detroit Institute of Arts and can perhaps be dated to 1520 from its inscription, has also been attributed to Bernardino. That painting was first recorded in the collections of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte (1820–1904), the niece of Napoleon, where it was traditionally (?) described as 'Prince Trivulzio', but there is no other support for this identification other than the similarity of style with the portrait of Gian Giacomo Trivulzio. Because of its similar dimensions, it has been claimed that the present portrait is a pendant to that in Detroit, but it was not included in the Bonaparte sale in Paris in 1904, and this must therefore remain conjectural. A better candidate would be the last portrait in the group, another Portrait of a Gentleman sold Florence, Pandolfini, 16 May 2017, lot 66. This is also on panel of a very similar size (108 x 77.5 cm.) and shares the same inscription and symbols along the lower edge of the picture as the present lot. The distinctive heraldic stripes in the background here and their recurrence in each of these latter three portraits may well indicate a common family origin or commission. However, although there is no doubt that Bernardino had maintained strong connections with the Trivulzio family ever since he painted the portrait of Castellano Trivulzio in 1505 (New York, Brooklyn Art Museum), the colours here are not theirs.¹ We are grateful to Dottoressa Maria Teresia Fiorio for her help with the cataloguing of this lot.

1 Trutty-Coohill 1982, p. 136, suggested that they are the colours of the French royal family, for whom both Gian Giacomo Trivulzio and his natural son Camillo fought during the Italian wars. Passoni 2013 accepts neither this nor the Trivulzio association, and doubts the attribution to Bernardino of the three portraits with this feature.