Portrait of a Painter

Fra' Galgario (Vittore Ghislandi)

Download hi-res image TITLE Portrait of a Painter
AUTHOR Fra' Galgario (Vittore Ghislandi)
DATE 1725 - 30
OBJECT TYPE AND MATERIAL Oil on canvas
DIMENSIONS cm 75 x 60
INVENTORY 632
ROOM XXXVI
Work on display

Ghislandi, or Fra Vittore when he became a lay brother with the Minim Friars, was dubbed Fra’ Galgario after the convent where he lived on his return from Venice in c. 1701. The reputation he built in Venice and his realistic, scrupulously honest style of portraiture made him hugely popular in Bergamo. His biographer Francesco Maria Tassi says “in virtually every home there hung a product of his fertile brush”. His reds and blues, glistening with lacquer, are spectacular.