Artwork
Monsignor della Casa
Monsignor della Casa is an oil painting by the Mannerist artist Pontormo. It dates from 1542 and is held in the collection of the National Gallery of Art.
About this work
Subject & Meaning
The painting depicts Giovanni della Casa (1503–1556), a clergyman and the author of Il Galateo, the celebrated Renaissance treatise on courtly behavior.
The painting depicts Giovanni della Casa (1503–1556), a clergyman and the author of Il Galateo, the celebrated Renaissance treatise on courtly behavior. His composed bearing has been read as a visual embodiment of the decorum he prescribed in his writing. He is shown half-length, standing in a plain interior, wearing a mantle that covers his shoulders and torso.
At waist level his arms emerge: the left hand presses a book to his chest, while the right holds a priest's hat. His elongated, slender form is accentuated by a long reddish beard, and his gaze meets the viewer with steady intensity. Expressive exaggerations heighten the portrait's communicative force, the stretched neck and head nearly grazing the upper edge of the panel, the swelling volume of the sleeves, and the serene solemnity of the hands and arms.
Technique & Style
The painting is executed in oil on a wooden panel, measuring approximately 102 cm high by 78.9 cm wide and dated to around 1540 (with scholarly ranges of 1540‑1544). Pontormo renders the sitter as a half‑length figure standing in a modest interior, dressed in a dark mantle (or blue sotana) that covers the shoulders and torso, while the arms at waist level hold a book against the chest and a priest’s hat. The figure’s elongated silhouette, emphasized by a stretched neck and head that nearly reaches the upper edge, a long reddish beard, and voluminous sleeves, conveys a serene solemnity and intense gaze, hallmarks of the artist’s Mannerist handling.
History & Provenance
The painting entered the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., in 1961 as part of the Samuel H. Kress Collection, having been given to the museum by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation after the foundation's purchase on 6 February 1952. Before reaching the NGA, the panel was held in Florence by Marchese Bargagli, then consigned to Trotti et Cie. in Paris, where it was exhibited at Galerie Trotti in 1909 under an attribution to Sebastiano del Piombo. It subsequently passed through M. Knoedler & Co. and Pinakos, Inc., before Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi acquired it in 1922 and later sold it to the Kress Foundation.
Documentation of the 1952 Kress acquisition is preserved in the M. Knoedler & Co. Records (accession number 2012.M.54) at the Getty Research Institute, and the work is catalogued in The Kress Collection Digital Archive.
Overview
Pontormo's "Monsignor della Casa," painted around 1541-1544, is an oil on panel now housed at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. This painting depicts a man, identified as Giovanni della Casa, author of Galateo. He is shown in elegant dark attire and a large hat, gazing directly at the viewer with a composed and serious expression. The artist emphasizes the sitter's face, rendered with considerable detail and realism.
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Artist & collection
Artist
Jacopo Carucci or Carrucci (IPA:; May 24, 1494 – January 2, 1557), usually known as Jacopo (da) Pontormo or simply Pontormo (IPA: ), was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine School.
