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| Diego Pignatelli d'Aragona (1687–1750) and an Enslaved African Servant |
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| Painting in frame |
Artist:Francesco Solimena (Italian, Canale di Serino 1657–1747 Barra)
Date:probably 1731 or 1732
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:23 1/4 x 18 1/4 in. (59.1 x 46.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1967
Accession Number:67.102
This oil sketch would have been shown to the sitter, Diego Pignatelli, Duke of Terranova, for approval before work was begun on the finished portrait, which is life-size. The duke wears the robes and collar of the order of the Golden Fleece, conferred on him in 1731 by the Hapsburg Emperor Charles VI. Pignatelli was a prince of the Holy Roman Empire and remained faithful to the Austrians even after rulership of Naples passed to the French Bourbons. Solimena was the outstanding painter of eighteenth-century Naples, with a European reputation.
Catalogue Entry
Painted on a reddish-brown ground that is visible as a margin on all four sides, the picture is an oil sketch, or modello, for one of Solimena’s largest as well as most outstanding portraits—a fact noted by Solimena’s biographer, De Dominici (Vite de’ pittori, scultori ed architetti napoletani, Naples, 1742, p. 605). The sitter is Diego Pignatelli (1687–1750), Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Marquess of Valle de Oaxaca, later Duke of Terranova and Monteleone. Longobard in origin, the Pignatelli were among the most illustrious noble families in the kindoms of Naples and Sicily, tracing their lineage back to the twelfth century. Diego Pignatelli was the oldest son of Niccolò Pignatelli (1648–1730), Viceroy of Sardinia and Sicily, and Giovanna II Aragona Pignatelli Cortes. He wears the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece that was conferred on him by Charles VI Hapsburg in 1731. Diego Pignatelli closely allied himself with the Emperor during the time that Naples was under Hapsburg domination (1713–34), and even after the city returned to Spanish rule under the Bourbons he continued to support the Austrians, engaging in an abortive anti-Bourbon plot in 1744. He stands next to an elaborately carved table decorated with the Pignatelli coat of arms, behind which is an enslaved African servant in Turkish dress, as was highly fashionable throughout Europe. It has been suggested that the buildings in the background may refer to an actual architectural project of Pignatelli’s.
The composition, with curtain drawn back, the sitter regally dressed and resting one hand on a table or chair, with an attending page or servant, and the background opening onto a landscape vista, was a standard Baroque formula, having been popularized by Anthony Van Dyck during his sojourn in Genoa. In the course of events, the Met’s modello would have been shown to Pignatelli for approval. Aside from the marble floor and some details, the composition in the final version, which measures 283 x 184 cm, remained basically the same (the finished portrait was sold at Sotheby’s, Milan, December 15, 2009, lot 29). Interestingly, whereas the coat of arms in the modello is that of the Pignatelli, in the final version it is the combined arms of the Pignatelli-Aragona (and, indeed, the final picture bears the inscription identifying the sitter as Don Diego d’Aragona Pignatelli duca di Terranova e Monteleone). The picture was probably painted not long after 1731, when Pignatelli received the Golden Fleece, and is possibly related to his appointment as Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples in 1733.
Keith Christiansen 2017
Copyright Image
https://images.metmuseum.org
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