Luigi Miradori, called Genovesino

Ambassador Aleksandr Ivanovič Nelidov (1838-1910), Paris;

With Léo Nardus, Paris;

From whom acquired by Kleinberger Galleries, New York, 1929-1930;

Their sale, New York, American Art Association, 18 November 1932, lot 63 (as Juan Bautista del Mazo y Martinez);

Where acquired by Emil Winter (1857-1941), Pittsburgh, for $850;

With Central Picture Galleries, New York (as Spanish School, 17th century);

From whom acquired, 1975.

San Diego, Fine Arts Society, Loan Collection of Old Spanish Paintings, 1 February - 1 March 1930, no. 8 (lent by Kleinberger Galleries);

Cremona, Museo Civico “Ala Ponzone,” Genovesino: Natura e invenzione nella pittura del Seicento a Cremona, 6 October 2017 - 6 January 2018, no. 8 (lent by Stanley Moss).

Catalogue of New Acquisitions, New York 1929, cat. no. 45, reproduced (as del Mazo);

Loan Collection of Old Spanish Paintings, exhibition catalogue, San Diego 1930, n.p., cat. no. 8 (as del Mazo);

M. Gregori, “Alcuni aspetti del Genovesino,” in Paragone 5, no. 59 (November 1954), pp. 19, 28-29 notes 4, 6, reproduced, pl. 13a;

M. Gregori, in Il Seicento Lombardo: Catalogo dei dipinti e delle sculture, Milan 1973, p. 68, cat. no. 175-6;

M. Tanzi, “Un ritratto del Genovesino,” in Ricerche di Storia dell’Arte 33 (1987), p. 88;

M. Tanzi, “Un ritratto in Palazzo d’Arco a Mantova [1987],” in La Zenobia di don Alvaro e altri studi sul Seicento tra la Bassa padana e l’Europa, Milan 2015, p. 179;

S. Zanusso, Il ritratto in Lombardia da Moroni a Ceruti, Milan 2002, p. 186, under cat. no. 70;

A. Squizzato, I Trivulzio e le arti, Vicende seicentesche, Milan 2013, p. 126 note 204;

M. Tanzi, in Genovesino: Natura e invenzione nella pittura del Seicento a Cremona, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2017, pp. 74-77, 202, under cat. no. 53, reproduced;

M. Marocchi, “Muoia il Malgoverno!” in Rivolte popolari contro i Gonzaga di Castiglione delle Stiviere, Mantua 2022, p. 15, reproduced;

F. Ceretti, "Gli esordi del Genovesino sotto la Lanterna," in Paragone 76, nos. 899-901 (January-March 2025), pp. 6, 8, reproduced pl. 6 (in detail).

As the inscription on the wall behind the sitter confirms, this dashing full-length portrait depicts one of the most important figures of seicento Lombardy, Prince Gian Giacomo Teodoro Trivulzio (1597-1656). Clearly meant as a potent statement of the sitter’s stature and power, the portrait belies Trivulzio’s somewhat unusual career. He is shown as a military man, holding a commander’s baton, a pile of armor at his feet while a cavalry battle rages in the distance. However, the lush red mantle and hat that the Prince wears, along with the processional cross on his right, are signifiers of his distinguished ecclesiastical career.

Gian Giacomo Teodoro Trivulzio was the son of Carlo Emanuele Teodoro, conte di Melzo, Principe di Mesocco and his wife, Caterina Gonzaga. Gian Giacomo began his military career as a calvary commander for Philip III of Spain, and quickly rose in stature, eventually receiving the title of Prince and the status of a Grandee of Spain. After the death of his wife in 1615, Trivulzio entered the church, attaining the cardinal’s hat in 1629. Despite this, he remained a political figure and was eventually appointed Governor of Milan. His military career also continued, with his most notorious campaign being the suppression of the revolt in Sicily in 1647.

As with many of Genovesino’s portraits, the present work was erroneously attributed in the past to a Spanish painter, in this case Juan Bautista Martínez del Mazo, the son-in-law of Diego Velázquez. It was sold as such in the 1932 Kleinberger sale in New York, the catalogue for which reproduced it in black and white. Based on that image Roberto Longhi recognized the painting as an important portrait by Genovesino; Mina Gregori first published the painting, recognizing its incisive psychological portrayal of its fierce subject. The inclusion of the chain of the Order of the Golden Fleece worn by Trivulzio gives a terminus post quem for the portrait of 1634, the year in which he received the honor. Marco Tanzi dates the painting to between 1634 and 1640, thus making it a key early work in the artist’s corpus of portraiture. It predates by as much as a decade the Portrait of Sigismondo Ponzone of 1646 (Cremona, Pinacoteca del Museo Civico “Ala Ponzone,” inv. no. 249), as well as his magisterial Portrait of an Olivetan Monk (Private collection).¹

The stylistic approach seen in this painting continued in later portraits by the artist, as noted by Beatrice Tanzi, who saw affinities with the much later Portrait of a Gentleman in the Museo di Palazzo D’Arco, Mantua.² Another portrait of Trivulzio that shares certain elements of the present composition, but by an anonymous hand, is in the Museo Martinitt e Stelline, Milan.³

¹ See Tanzi 2017, cat. no. 41, reproduced.

² Tanzi 2017, cat. no. 53, reproduced.

³ See Squizzato 2013, reproduced fig. 11.