Artwork
Portrait of a Man as Saint George
Portrait of a Man as Saint George is an oil painting by the Baroque artist Giuseppe Caletti. It dates from 1624 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The figure is identified as Saint George, the legendary dragon-slayer venerated as a warrior-saint and a frequent patron of soldiers and chivalric orders.
The painting presents a male sitter portrayed in the guise of Saint George, a conventional Renaissance device that merged personal likeness with sacred identity. The figure is identified as Saint George, the legendary dragon-slayer venerated as a warrior-saint and a frequent patron of soldiers and chivalric orders. By depicting an unnamed man as this militant holy figure, the work fuses portraiture with devotional iconography, lending the sitter the virtues associated with the saint, courage, martial valor, and Christian righteousness, while also functioning as a recognizable religious image.
The dual character of the canvas, simultaneously a portrait and a saintly representation, reflects mid-sixteenth-century Italian practice of idealizing sitters through saintly attributes, though the specific attributes and accompanying symbols held by the figure are not detailed in the available records.
Technique & Style
Giuseppe Caletti’s Portrait of a Man as Saint George (1550) is executed in oil on canvas, a medium typical of Venetian Renaissance portraiture. The support measures 83.8 by 71.1 centimeters, providing an intimate yet monumental scale for the subject. Stylistically, the painting exhibits a refined handling of glazes and impasto, characteristic of mid-sixteenth-century Lombard-Venetian techniques, with particular attention to the luminous rendering of flesh tones and textiles.
The brushwork is precise yet fluid, capturing fine details such as the embroidery on the sitter’s costume while maintaining a naturalistic modeling of form. The condition of the work, as recorded in the Samuel H. Kress Collection, appears stable, though no specific restoration history is detailed in available documentation.
History & Provenance
The painting’s early history is traced to Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi in Rome, who by 1929 had the work in his possession; Roberto Longhi commented on it that year without specifying its location. On 4 March 1932 Contini Bonacossi sold the work to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation in New York as _Portrait of a Man with Flag_, attributed at the time to Jacopo Tintoretto. The Kress Foundation’s records later note shifting attributions among Dosso Dossi, Tintoretto, and Francesco Mazzola.
In 1937 the Foundation donated the painting to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, where it entered the collection as _Portrait of a Man as Saint George_.
The painting is held by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection, accessioned as 1939.1.1706. It entered the collection in 1937 as a gift from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, which had acquired it in March 1932 from Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi, Rome. The work has no recorded exhibition history in the provided sources.
Overview
Giuseppe Caletti's painting, "Portrait of a Man as Saint George," created around 1624, is an oil on canvas. This work functions as a portrait where the sitter assumes the identity of the Christian martyr, Saint George. It presents an individual in the guise of the legendary figure, rather than a literal depiction of the saint himself.
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