Luca Signorelli (about 1441 – 1523)

Luca Signorelli

A Portrait of Niccolò Vitelli (1414-1486)

Città di Castello, Umbria, 1499-1502

Oil on wood

44.2 x 33 cm

The profile composition of this portrait imitates classical coins and medals, an increasingly rare approach in the late fifteenth-century as artists adopted the newer and more fashionable three-quarter view. The use of profile view in this portrait serves as a clear symbol of power and supremacy. Niccolò was originally painted with no hat. Through an x-ray, it is possible to identify his bald head. The later addition of the hat explains why the ear looks so low and why the initials ‘N.V.’ are unbalanced.

Niccolò Vitelli was a condottiero (mercenary captain) with a ruthless reputation. His quest to rule his native town, Città di Castello in Umbria, Italy, led to wars with the papal government. The painter of this portrait, Signorelli, was a citizen of Città di Castello and had long-lasting relationships with the Vitelli family.

This portrait was hung alongside four others in a series. The other panels depicted Niccolò’s sons. Two of these portraits are in the Berenson collection at Villa I Tatti, while the two other designs can be found in eighteenth-century copies. Each Vitelli portrait presents the sitter in profile view, revealing distinctive facial features including a large nose and deeply set eyes.

The Vitelli family were responsible for numerous wars in their quest for money and power. These portraits, however, are still and inscrutable. This portrait was painted posthumously (after Niccolò Vitelli’s death), suggesting it was designed to memorialise and even celebrate the family’s influence in their city.

This painting was once in the celebrated Cook Collection, at Doughty House in Richmond, London. The Barber’s Alexander the Great and Hercules and Deianira also once hung in the Cook Collection.

Purchased 1945 (No. 45.3)

Further reading:

Cook, Herbert (ed.), A Catalogue of the Paintings: At Doughty House Richmond & Elsewhere in the Collection of Sir Frederick Cook, London, 1913.

Gilbert, Creighton, ‘The Renaissance Portrait’, The Burlington Magazine, 110/782, 1968, pp. 278-85.

Hatfield, Rab, ‘Five Early Renaissance Portraits, The Art Bulletin, 47/3, 1965, pp. 315-34.

Henry, Tom, ‘Luca Signorelli and the Vitelli of Citta di Castello’, in Una Insalata Di Piu Erbe: A Fetschrift for Patricia Lee Rubin, ed. J. Harris et al., London, 2011, pp. 35-45.

Henry, Tom, The Life and Art of Luca Signorelli, London, 2012.

The Green Gallery Project

This artwork was part of a research project into the Barber’s pre-1600 Italian paintings.