Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page
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Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt | |
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Italian: Ritratto di Wignacourt con paggio | |
Artist | Caravaggio |
Year | 1607–1608 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Dimensions | 195 cm × 134 cm (77 in × 53 in) |
Location | Louvre, Paris |
Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt with his Page (c. 1607-1608) is a painting by the Italian master Caravaggio, in the Louvre of Paris.
Caravaggio arrived in Malta from Naples in July 1607 and according to his early biographers
One of his innovations had been to surround to himself with young pages, in imitation of the fashion of the princely courts. The pages were taken from the most noble Catholic families of Europe. According to John Gash and others the page in the portrait is probably Nicholas de Paris Boissy, a French aristocrat destined for a distinguished career – he became Grand Prior of France in 1657. He is placed a little awkwardly within the composition: his feet are aligned with the feet of de Wignacourt, as if standing beside de Wignacourt, but his hand and the helmet overlap Wignacourt's elbow, giving the impression that from the waist up he is in front of the knight. The fact can be explained by Caravaggio's practice of painting separately from live models – de Wignacourt and the page were apparently not together in the studio at the same time.
The boy's lively expression and alert gaze make him an attractive subject in his own right, to the extent that he was several times copied by later artists visiting Malta. Wignacourt, encased in splendid black and gold Milanese armour, stares upwards and outwards out of the frame in a dignified manner that invites the viewer to gaze upon him in awe, leaving the page, with his look of boyish interest, as the sole thoroughly human presence, and a far more sympathetic one than the self-conscious man of steel. The double-portrait with the pageboy was an unusual combination for the time. It may have been ordered by Wignacourt to stress the dignity of his court, or Caravaggio may have been inspired by a painting by Titian that he could have seen in his youth in Milan, Alfonso d'Avalos Addressing his Troops, showing the Spanish governor of the city addressing his knights with a page beside him holding his helmet.
See also
Sources
- Sammut, E. (1949). "Caravaggio in Malta" (PDF). Scientia. 15 (2): 78–89.
- Gash, John (2004). Caravaggio. ISBN 1-904449-22-0.
- Giorgi, Rosa (1999). Caravaggio: Master of light and dark - his life in paintings. ISBN 0-7894-4138-1.
- Langdon, Helen (1998). Caravaggio: A Life. ISBN 0-374-11894-9.
- ISBN 0-312-27474-2.
References
External links
- Media related to Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt by Caravaggio at Wikimedia Commons