Portrait of a Man (recto); A Male Torso in Jacket and the Head of a Child (verso)

Portrait of a Man (recto); A Male Torso in Jacket and the Head of a Child (verso)

Giuseppe Ghislandi ("Fra Vittore Galgario")

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Giuseppe Ghislandi, called Fra Vittore Galgario, is an accomplished late Baroque North-Italian painter who was mainly active in the city of Bergamo, and who was especially famous in his day as a naturalistic portraitist. The present sheet is an excellent example of Fra Galgario's draftsmanship. Few studies for portraits illustrate a variety of stages in his design of portraits, since drawings by this artist are extremely rare. The attribution of this piece is fairly certain, since the portrait of the man seen on the recto is closely comparable to one of the most famous portraits by this artist (Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan), which dates from the 1740s. The recto of this double-sided sheet depicts a carefully finished bust-length portrait of a man in contemporary 18th century dress in a three-quarter view facing to the right. The naturalistic treatment of the sitter is typical of the late Baroque, Bergamasque school of painting. The verso of the sheet shows a more freely drawn study for the dressed torso of a man turned in a nearly profile view to the right and a softly rendered study of a child's head in near profile also facing to the right. (C.C.B.)

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of a Man (recto); A Male Torso in Jacket and the Head of a Child (verso)Portrait of a Man (recto); A Male Torso in Jacket and the Head of a Child (verso)Portrait of a Man (recto); A Male Torso in Jacket and the Head of a Child (verso)Portrait of a Man (recto); A Male Torso in Jacket and the Head of a Child (verso)Portrait of a Man (recto); A Male Torso in Jacket and the Head of a Child (verso)

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.