The famous portrait of Doge Francesco Erizzo, Bernardo Strozzi’s masterpiece from the Kunsthistorisches of Vienna at the Museum of Santa Caterina in Treviso. – Carlo Franza’s blog
He is a leaderwork of art but also a work of symbolic topicality the one that (until February 13, 2022) reaches the Museum of Santa Caterina from Kunsthistorisches in Vienna. This is the famous Portrait of Doge Francesco Erizzo, a masterpiece undisputed by Bernardo Strozzi.
The project “A masterpiece for Treviso – highlights the Director of the Civic Museums Fabrizio Malachin, is“ one of the fruits of the network of connections that the Treviso Civics are weaving with the great European museums. Strozzi’s masterpiece comes to Treviso from the Kunsthistorisches following the loan of Titian’s Portrait of Sperone Speroni to the Viennese museum. “Francesco Erizzo – underline Mario Conte, Mayor of Treviso and Councilor Lavinia Colonna Preti, was the doge of the economic and artistic restart of Venice after the great plague of 1630. He was elected on the first ballot practically unanimously, confirming a popularity and a decidedly rare and undisputed approval, destined to never fail. The period of his doge was among the luckiest and happiest in Venice, with the very strong resumption, after the drama of the epidemic, of economic, artistic and playful activities. His figure remained a recognized symbol of social harmony and the state. The presence of ‘a doge in Treviso’ is also a tribute to the 1600th anniversary of the foundation of the city of Venice ”.
The Portrait of Francesco Erizzo by Strozzi makes it possible to enhance one of the most significant sections of the civic collections: over 50 portraits with works by Lotto, Tiziano, Tintoretto, Palma il Giovane. The doge therefore finds his place of honor in the portrait gallery, among other figures with an ist roleimportant names (some kept in the deposits) such as Senators, Procurators and officers. “The event also anticipates the forthcoming publication of the third volume of the scientific catalog of museums dedicated to the 17th century and to ‘700. A commitment that the Institute is carrying out thanks to the collaboration of the Friends of the Museums and Monuments of Treviso, and of numerous studies ”, highlights Director Malachin. Bernardo Strozzi represents the doge Erizzo in his third age. Sergio Marinelli, who studied the work for a long time, highlights how in the painting the doge status is wonderfully highlighted by the dress, almost a “uniform”, naturally sumptuous. With fabrics and precious colors of red, the white of the ermine, the golden yellow. Approach, almost in contrast, to the serene and detached features of the face, not idealized, caught in the weariness of his
old age. The doge who appears to you as a “Santa Claus of the State, father figure and certainly reliable”. The surprise of the discovery of the pictorial quality of this grandiose masterpiece of portraiture is already in the words of Giuseppe Fiocco, who in 1922 wrote: “The portrait… must have been a triumph and is certainly one of the most admirable paintings of the time for us too; worthy of a Vélazquez for the severity of the expression and for the knowledge of the flowing and constructive touch. “ There is a less intense variant of the painting, kept in the Accademia Galleries, while several copies and variants have continued to appear on the antiques market, testifying to the prestige of the model. Strozzi, from Genoa, in the capital he was a Capuchin friar from Liguria and at the same time a successful artist. He ended up tried and convicted of apostasy, forced to put on his habit, locked up for 18 months between prison and convent under the strictest segregation regime, before regaining his freedom thanks to the positive outcome of yet another escape attempt.
In the Serenissima it is the Doge Erizzo to host a petition and he will be able to express his artistic skills again. In the new homeland, the forest did not struggle to impose its supremacy. He immediately stands out by completing the decoration of the ceiling of the Marciana Library, but it was in the role of portraitist that Strozzi excelled. In addition to the portrait of Doge Erizzo, those of Cardinal Federico Corner and Bishop Alvise Grimani are from his early Venetian period. Success soon led him to rebuild in Venice the business model that had made him a protagonist in Liguria, based on the management of a large workshop-laboratory with many students. from this comes out paintings of all kinds, not only portraits, still lifes and sacred scenes but also landscapes. In short, works for all budgets and all tastes. When the master applies himself in person, as in the doge’s portrait, he shows he can reach very high heights. Fabrizio Malachin, also referring to ancient sources, affirms of him that “for pure pictorial talent, he certainly had few who were able to equal him, none to surpass him. To the Caravaggesque echoes of his early days, he was able to combine the brightness of Paolo Veronese and the colorism of Pieter Paul Rubens in a personal style with the sensual portrait painting of Anton van Diyck ”.
Now it is to be admired until February 13, 2022 Santa Caterina Museum in Treviso, in the “A Masterpiece for Treviso” project.
Carlo Franza
Tags: Bernardo Strozzi., Director of the Civic Museums Fabrizio Malachin, Kunsthistorisches of Vienna, Lotto, Museum of Santa Caterina-Treviso, palm the young, Prof. Carlo Franza, Portrait of Doge Francesco Erizzo, Portrait of Francesco Erizzo dello Strozzi, Tintoretto, Tiziano, Treviso, A masterpiece for Treviso