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| Portrait of a Man |
Artist:Rosalba Carriera (Italian, Venice 1673–1757 Venice)
Date:ca. 1710
Medium:Ivory
Dimensions:Oval, 3 x 2 1/4 in. (76 x 59 mm)
Classification:Miniatures
Credit Line:Rogers Fund, 1949
Catalogue Entry
Rosalba was a pastelist as well as a painter of miniatures. In about 1700, influenced by the vogue for painting on the bottom of ivory boxes (fondelli), she began to work on an ivory ground; through her example this surface became that most commonly used for miniatures throughout the eighteenth century. Rosalba presented a miniature on ivory entitled L’Innocenza, representing a young girl with a dove (Bernardina Sani, Rosalba Carriera, Turin, 1988, pp. 14, 27, pl. 1), to the Accademia di San Luca in Rome in 1705. She enjoyed an international reputation, and her visit to France in 1720–21 had a decisive effect on miniature painting in that country. The ivory ground, combined with greater freedom in brushwork and the use of impasto, contributes to the brilliant effect of her miniatures.
The portrait was painted about 1710. The attribution to Rosalba (under which The Met acquired it) appears to be correct and has been confirmed by Sani (1992, 2007). The bluing of the armor is handled with characteristic technical finesse. A black paper fixed to the frame's wooden backing is inscribed in pencil Earl [...] / Middlesex. Charles Sackville (1711–1769), son of Lionel Cranfield Sackville (1688–1765), earl of Dorset and Middlesex, was styled earl of Middlesex from 1720 to 1765, but the miniature does not portray him or his father.
[2016; adapted from Reynolds and Baetjer 1996]
Location : Metropolitan Museum of Art
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