Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait of a Prelate

Date

mid-1500s

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

Italy, 16th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

Girolamo da Carpi, a court artist from Ferrara, was influenced by the grace and intellectual artificiality found in Italian Mannerist art, seen in the flowing S-curve of the sitter's clothing and his delicate and attenuated fingers. The sitter's dress identifies him as a prelate, a high-ranking member of the Catholic clergy. His costume includes a dark mantel with red lining over a gauzy, white rochet and the three-cornered hat, called a biretta . In his right hand he holds a book whose cover displays an elephant, standing in water, looking at the moon. This motif symbolized purity, and the sitter's virtue is further emphasized through the book's inscription, MUNDOS LIBENTER ASPICIT, which means, "The moon beholds the pure with pleasure." While several noble Renaissance households used this design for their family emblems, none have yet proven related to the prelate in this painting and so his identity remains unknown.

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