Diego Pignatelli d'Aragona (1687–1750) and an Enslaved African Servant

The Painting: Painted on a reddish-brown ground that is visible as a margin on all four sides, the picture is an oil sketch, or modello, for one of Solimena’s largest as well as most outstanding portraits (see fig. 1 above)—a fact noted by Solimena’s biographer, De Dominici, who mentions it among the artist’s “most beautiful portraits.”[1] The sitter is Diego Pignatelli (1687–1750), Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Marquess of Valle de Oaxaca, later Duke of Terranova and Monteleone. Longobard in origin, the Pignatelli were among the most illustrious noble families in the kindoms of Naples and Sicily, tracing their lineage back to the twelfth century. Diego Pignatelli was the oldest son of Niccolò Pignatelli (1648–1730), Viceroy of Sardinia and Sicily, and Giovanna II Aragona Pignatelli Cortes. He wears the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece that was conferred on him by Charles VI Habsburg in 1731. Diego Pignatelli closely allied himself with the Emperor during the time that Naples was under Habsburg domination (1713–34), and even after the city returned to Spanish rule under the Bourbons he continued to support the Austrians, engaging in an abortive anti-Bourbon plot in 1744. He stands next to an elaborately carved table decorated with the Pignatelli coat of arms. Behind the table, his head resting on his left arm as he gazes admiringly at the prince, is a young African servant. He is costumed in Turkish dress, a fashion that enjoyed enormous popularity in aristocratic families throughout Europe as it added a touch of exotica to their lives (see 1976.100.8, 1995.317). It has been suggested that the buildings in the background may refer to an actual architectural project of Pignatelli’s.

Pictorial Sources and Function: The composition, with curtain drawn back, the sitter regally dressed and resting one hand on a table or chair, with an attending page or servant, and the background opening onto a landscape vista, was a standard Baroque formula, having been popularized by Anthony van Dyck during his sojourn in Genoa. In the course of events, the Met’s modello would have been shown to Pignatelli for approval. Aside from the marble floor and some details, the composition in the final version, which measures 283 x 184 cm, remained basically the same (the finished portrait was sold at Sotheby’s, Milan, December 15, 2009, lot 29). Interestingly, whereas the coat of arms in the modello is that of the Pignatelli, in the final version it is the combined arms of the Pignatelli-Aragona (and, indeed, the final picture bears the inscription identifying the sitter as Don Diego d’Aragona Pignatelli duca di Terranova e Monteleone). The picture was probably painted not long after 1731, when Pignatelli received the Golden Fleece, and is possibly related to his appointment as Grand Constable of the Kingdom of Naples in 1733.

Keith Christiansen 2019

[1] Bernardo de Dominici. Vite de’ pittori, scultori, ed architetti napoletani. Naples, 1742, p. 605.

Comparison between the Sketch and the Portrait: Solimena remained faithful to the composition of this oil sketch when he set out to paint his much larger portrait commission. Pignatelli’s anatomical proportions and the complex folds in his voluminous ceremonial garment are almost identical in both works, indicating the artist followed the sketch meticulously during the execution of the life-size portrait. In addition, a pentimento or change in the lower edge of the red robe in the sketch gives us a glimpse of Solimena’s artistic practice: During the cleaning of the sketch, it was revealed that the bottom contour of the red robe was at first similar in both paintings. Solimena painted a dark shadow over a section of the robe in the sketch to test how it would appear in the final portrait. He must have been displeased with the change and opted to leave the robe in the final portrait as he originally intended in the sketch. A striking difference between the two paintings is the handling and size of the head, which appears rather generic in the sketch. Other contemporary portraits of Pignatelli confirm that Solimena had the duke pose for this life-size portrait. Variations in the hands are also noted. In the sketch, both hands are clad in white leather gloves while in the final portrait Pignatelli gracefully clutches his right glove with his left gloved hand. Finally, elements of the architectural background have evolved from a tower in the sketch to a domed building in the final portrait.

Support: The canvas support for the sketch is a coarsely woven, plain-weave, hand-loomed linen that has a tight weave count of 44 vertical by 32 horizontal threads per square inch. The painting has been lined onto a light-weight, open-weave fabric. The lined painting was tensioned onto a new wooden stretcher with metal sprigs. The conservator who conducted this structural intervention appears to have re-used the original tack holes and bent metal sprigs to affix the lined painting onto its current stretcher. It is possible that the sketch was lined to compress diagonal planar deformations with related paint loss in the lower half of the painting.

Ground: The reddish-brown ground was applied to the canvas before it was stretched. The ground extends onto the tacking edges and is visible within the composition as a peripheral border. (There is no evidence that the border was once turned over and used as a tacking edge.) Solimena left this section unpainted to have the possibility to enlarge the composition, which he did by painting yellow drapery in the upper right corner. It is noteworthy that two of Solimena’s self-portraits, one at Museo del Prado, Madrid (POO352), and the other at Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (N. Inv. 1758), show him painting sketches with intermittently exposed red preparations. Solimena’s modello for his portrait of Pignatelli may be characteristic of the artist in allowing for compositional expansion. Another reason for the exposed ground may be that the artist was unaware of the final location for the finished portrait, which would inevitably dictate the final dimensions of the painting. By leaving the red ground borders unpainted Solimena gave himself some flexibility to redefine the size of the portrait. Infrared examination did not reveal a formal underdrawing, and it is possible that the artist worked on the sketch directly with paint, guided by preliminary drawings.

Paint Layers: Several layers of fluid oil paint were applied thinly over the ground. The colored ground plays a major role in the fabrication of shadows where only dark glazes were used to impart subtle tonalities. The dark appearance of this modello is linked to the methods used to create it. With age, the paint layers have become more transparent, an effect most evident in the sky and the foliage in the upper right. The increase in transparency is responsible for the relative lack of definition in the background and the appearance of a low-key palette overall. Solimena’s final portrait appears to have a richer, thicker paint application with opaque colors. In this sketch, diluted paint gave the artist the ability to create an intricate composition that was easy to revise on a small scale. Also, lean paint was more cost-effective for a sketch, whose purpose was practical: to guide the composition of a larger, more important work. As mentioned above, during the creation of the final portrait, Solimena reworked the sketch to test minor compositional changes. For example, he added a yellow, heavy drape with black trimming in the upper left corner and covered the lower section of Pignatelli’s red robe with a black horizontal shadow.

[José Luis Lazarte Luna 2017]

[Ettore Viancini, Venice, until 1967; sold to The Met]

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Oil Sketches by 18th Century Italian Artists from New York Collections," January 30–March 21, 1971, no. 24.

Sarasota. John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. "Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works from North American Collections," December 7, 1984–February 3, 1985, no. 68.

Hartford, Conn. Wadsworth Atheneum. "Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works from North American Collections," March 20–May 20, 1985, no. 68.

New York. Center for African Art. "Likeness and Beyond: Portraits from Africa and the World," February 14–August 12, 1990, no. 79.

Fort Worth, Tex. Kimbell Art Museum. "Likeness and Beyond: Portraits from Africa and the World," September 16–November 11, 1990, no. 79.

Vienna. Kunstforum der Bank Austria. "Barock in Neapel: Kunst zur Zeit der österreichischen Vizekönige," December 10, 1993–February 20, 1994, no. 67.

Naples. Castel Sant'Elmo. "Barock in Neapel: Kunst zur Zeit der österreichischen Vizekönige," March 26–June 5, 1994, no. 67.

Ferdinando Bologna. Letter to Everett Fahy. February 19, 1969, calls it an autograph "bozzetto" for the picture in the Pignatelli collection.

Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Unpublished manuscript for catalogue of Neapolitan paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [ca. 1970], as "Diego Pignatelli d'Aragona," Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, Marquess of Valle de Oxaca, later Duke of Terranova and Monteleone; note that the sitter was the oldest son of Niccolò Pignatelli (1648–1730), Viceroy of Sardinia and Sicily, and Giovanna II Aragona Pignatelli Cortes; point out that Don Diego wears the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece and stands near a table decorated with the Pignatelli coat of arms; consider this work, "executed on a dark reddish-brown ground," the preliminary sketch for a larger canvas by Solimena now owned by the descendents of Pignatelli in Rome; on stylistic grounds, date both works about 1730, the year that Don Diego inherited the family titles.

Oil Sketches by 18th Century Italian Artists from New York Collections. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [New York], 1971, p. 7, no. 24, calls this study "Diego Pignatelli d'Aragona, Duke of Terranova and Monteleone"; compares it to the finished portrait in Rome, noting minor alterations in composition such as the position of the fingers and the buildings in the background.

Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 190, 516, 609.

Nicola Spinosa in Civiltà del '700 a Napoli, 1734–1799. Exh. cat., Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte, Naples. Florence, 1979, vol. 1, p. 178, identifies it as a preparatory sketch for the portrait of Pignatelli (1687–1750) in Rome; places it at the very end of 1731 and beginning of 1732, pointing out that the sitter wears the attire and collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece given to him by Emperor Charles VI of Habsburg in December 1731.

John T. Spike. Baroque Portraiture in Italy: Works from North American Collections. Exh. cat., John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art. Sarasota, 1984, p. 178–79, no. 68, ill., describes it as a preparatory sketch for one of Solimena's "masterpieces of portraiture"; accepts Spinosa's date of 1731–32 for the finished portrait and our bozzetto [see Ref. Spinosa 1979]; notes that by the fourth decade of the 18th century the "attributes and ambience of the sitter are as important to the interpretation as is his likeness"; suggests that Solimena "made use of a preparatory sketch in order to assist his comprehension of the space and the arrangement of lights and darks in the full-length portrait".

Nicola Spinosa. Pittura napoletana del Settecento: dal Barocco al Rococò. Naples, 1986, pp. 115, no. 48, 208, fig. 55 (color), as "Il principe Diego Pignatelli"; places this work in the genre of the Neapolitan "ritratto di Stato," also practiced by De Mura and il Bonito.

Nicola Spinosa in La pittura in Italia: Il Settecento. Ed. Giuliano Briganti. revised and expanded ed. Milan, 1990, vol. 2, fig. 671.

Richard Brilliant in Likeness and Beyond: Portraits from Africa and the World. Exh. cat., Center for African Art. New York, 1990, pp. 14–15, 18, 20–21, 138–39, no. 79, ill. (color), as "Don Diego Pignatelli d'Aragona".

Giuliano Briganti, ed. La pittura in Italia: il Settecento. Milan, 1990, vol. 2, fig. 671, as "Il principe Diego Pignatelli".

Wolfgang Prohaska in Barock in Neapel: Kunst zur Zeit der österreichischen Vizekönige. Exh. cat., Kunstforum der Bank Austria, Vienna. Naples, 1993, pp. 274–75, no. 67, ill. (color), notes that Diego Pignatelli was such a fervent supporter of the Habsburgs that he was forced to flee to Calabria in 1744; mentions an engraving by the painter Domenico Mondos that closely follows our image, which appears as the frontispiece to a 1752 commemorative volume on Pignatelli.

Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 141, ill.

Nicola Spinosa. Francesco Solimena (1657–1747) e le arti a Napoli. Rome, 2018 [vol. 1], pp. 129, 556, no. 283.1, ill.

The painting is displayed in a possibly Piedmontese Neoclassical frame dating to 1800–1810, which is decorated with finely intertwined Greek key and floral designs on a rouletted background. The wood for the substrate appears to be pine, coated with several layers of gesso and bright orange bole. The original water gilding remains on the surface and has a lustrous cool tonality. The corners have not been modified and are in excellent structural condition.

José Luis Lazarte Luna and Cynthia Moyer 2017