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Title:Portrait of a Man
Artist:Lambert Sustris (Netherlandish, Amsterdam, born ca. 1510–15, died after 1560 Venice (?))
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:47 1/2 x 36 1/2 in. (120.7 x 92.7 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:The Jules Bache Collection, 1949
Object Number:49.7.14
Prince Alberto Giovanelli (by 1894–1925); [Italico Brass, Venice, 1925]; Frank P. Wood, Toronto (until 1928); [Duveen, New York, 1928; sold for $275,000 to Bache]; Jules S. Bache, New York (1928–d. 1944; his estate, 1944–49; cats., 1929, unnumbered; 1937, no. 15; 1943, no. 14)
Detroit Institute of Arts. "Sixth Loan Exhibition of Old Masters: Paintings by Titian," February 1–15, 1928, no. 17 (as by Titian, lent by Frank P. Wood).
New York. World's Fair. "Masterpieces of Art: European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800," May–October 1939, no. 382 (as by Titian, lent by Jules S. Bache).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Bache Collection," June 16–September 30, 1943, no. 14 (as by Titian).
Bernhard Berenson. The Venetian Painters of the Renaissance. 3rd ed. New York, 1894, p. 144 [3rd, illustrated ed., 1897, p. 139], lists it as a late work by Titian, in the Giovanelli collection, Venice.
Georges Lafenestre and Eugène Richtenberger. La Peinture en Europe: Venise. Paris, [1895], p. 317, attributes it to Titian.
Bernard Berenson. Letter to Duveen Bros. July 3, 1925, attributes it to Titian; rejects the identification of the subject as Tommaso Contarini.
Ugo Ojetti. "Commenti." Dedalo 6 (1925–26), pp. 133–34, 136, ill., attributes it to Titian.
G. Fogolari. Letter. 1925 [see Ref. Ricci 1930], attributes it to the circle of Moroni, rejecting an attribution to Titian.
Georg Gronau. Letter. January 17, 1926, attributes it to Titian.
Frank E. Washburn Freund. "Paintings by Titian in America." International Studio 90 (May 1928), pp. 40–41, ill. p. 38, attributes it to Titian and dates it around 1555; locates it in the collection of Frank P. Wood, Toronto.
Frank E. Washburn Freund. "Leih-Ausstellungen in Amerikanischen Museen." Der Cicerone 20 (1928), p. 254, ill.
Walter Heil. "The Jules Bache Collection." Art News 27 (April 27, 1929), p. 15, ill.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Collection of Jules S. Bache. New York, 1929, unpaginated, ill.
August L. Mayer. "Die Sammlung Jules Bache in New-York." Pantheon 6 (December 1930), pp. 542, 544, ill., attributes it to Titian.
H. E. Wortham. "The Bache Collection." Apollo 11 (May 1930), p. 350, ill., attributes it to Titian.
Corrado Ricci. "Ritratti "titianeschi" di Gian Paolo Pace." Rivista del Reale Istituto d'Archeologia e storia dell'arte 1 (1930), pp. 259–60 n. 1, rejects the attribution to Titian and notes that G. Fogolari, in a letter, 1925, attributes it to the circle of Moroni.
Bernhard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932, p. 573, lists it as a late work of Titian.
Lionello Venturi. Italian Paintings in America. Vol. 3, Sixteenth to Eighteenth Century. New York, 1933, unpaginated, pl. 522, attributes it to Titian and dates it about 1552.
Wilhelm Suida. Tizian. Zürich, 1933, pp. 109, 167, pl. 184, attributes it to Titian and dates it in the 1550's.
Johannes Wilde. "Zwei Tizian-Zuschreibungen des 17. Jahrhunderts." Jahrbuch der kunsthistorischen Sammlungen in Wien, n.s., 8 (1934), p. 172 n. 27, judging from reproductions, hesitantly suggests an attribution to Lambert Sustris.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. under revision. New York, 1937, unpaginated, no. 15, ill.
George Henry McCall. Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture from 1300–1800: Masterpieces of Art. Ed. William R. Valentiner. Exh. cat., World's Fair. New York, 1939, p. 186, no. 382, pl. 30, as by Titian, about 1550.
Duveen Pictures in Public Collections of America. New York, 1941, unpaginated, no. 158, ill. (overall and detail), attributes it to Titian and dates it about 1550–55.
A Catalogue of Paintings in the Bache Collection. rev. ed. New York, 1943, unpaginated, no. 14, ill.
Rodolfo Pallucchini. La giovinezza del Tintoretto. Milan, 1950, p. 164, attributes it to Titian, comparing it with Tintoretto's Portrait of a Man, formerly in the Lionel Straus collection [now MMA 58.49].
Josephine L. Allen and Elizabeth E. Gardner. A Concise Catalogue of the European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1954, p. 96.
Bernard Berenson. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: Venetian School. London, 1957, vol. 1, p.189.
Francesco Valcanover. Tutta la pittura di Tiziano. Milan, 1960, vol. 2, pp. 65–66, pl. 154, includes it among the works attributed to Titian that he does not consider autograph.
Alessandro Ballarin. "Profilo di Lamberto d'Amsterdam (Lamberto Sustris)." Arte veneta 16 (1962), pp. 73, 77, fig. 89, attributes it to Lambert Sustris and dates it after 1561; notes the influence of Titian.
Alessandro Ballarin. Atti dell'Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti 121 (1962), p. 365 [see Ref. Zeri and Gardner 1973], lists it among the works of Sustris.
Francesco Valcanover inL'opera completa di Tiziano. repr., 1978. Milan, 1969, p. 140, no. 612, ill., finds Ballarin's attribution to Sustris the most convincing.
Rodolfo Pallucchini. Tiziano. Florence, 1969, vol. 1, p. 217, accepts Ballarin's attribution to Lambert Sustris.
Harold E. Wethey. The Paintings of Titian. Vol. 2, The Portraits. London, 1971, p. 167, pl. 229, rejects the attribution to Titian and believes the picture may be by Sustris.
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, Mass., 1972, pp. 202, 526, 608, as Attributed to Titian.
Federico Zeri with the assistance of Elizabeth E. Gardner. Italian Paintings: A Catalogue of the Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Venetian School. New York, 1973, p. 54, pl. 59, observe a strong link with the work of Lambert Sustris from the 1560's, but note that certain features prevent the acceptance of this attribution without reservation; suggest that the lower part may have been altered or completely repainted by a less competent artist at a rather early date.
Katharine Baetjer. European Paintings in The Metropolitan Museum of Art by Artists Born Before 1865: A Summary Catalogue. New York, 1995, p. 80, ill.
Angela Tamvaki. "Lambert Sustris and El Greco." El Greco in Italy and Italian Art: Proceedings of the International Symposium. Ed. Nicos Hadjinicolaou. Rethymno, Crete, 1999, pp. 385–86, fig. 7.
Collecting Connoisseurship and the Art Market in Risorgimento Italy: Giovanni Morelli's Letters to Giovanni Melli and Pietro Zavaritt (1866–1872). Ed. Jaynie Anderson. Venice, 1999, p. 145 n. 131.
Meryle Secrest. Duveen: A Life in Art. New York, 2004, pp. 287–88, 305, 307, 493.
Antonio Mazzotta inGiovanni Bellini: Landscapes of Faith in Renaissance Venice. Ed. Davide Gasparotto. Exh. cat., J. Paul Getty Museum. Los Angeles, 2017, pp. 113, 115 n. 14.
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