The first renaissance centurion: the National Gallery of Scotland's new exhibition of Venetian renaissance art in Scottish collections includes a major rediscovery, a painting by Paris Bordon from Mount Stuart, Alexandra Jackson discusses its place in Venetian art, and studies the limited evidence for its date, patronage and provenance

Apollo, August, 2004 by Alexandra Jackson

Finally, there is a clear relationship between the Mount Stuart picture and Bonifacio de' Pitati's Christ and the Adulteress, of which there are two versions in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, among others (Fig. 6). Philip Cottrell has dated the painting to between 1538 and 1540. (15) In both Bordon's and De' Pitati's pictures a parable is illustrated in a rectangular format with a linear arrangement of crowded figures set against a landscape and juxtaposed with an architectural feature.

Portraiture in the painting?

The groups of figures in the Fisherman clearly include many portraits of senators and procurators, as well as a representation of the reigning doge, Andrea Gritti, in place of the historical one, Bartolomeo Gradenigo. On the other hand, the facial types in the Centurion are mostly characteristic of Bordon's range. Two are worthy of comment--the atypical red-haired, comparatively clean-shaven man who is partially hidden between St Luke and another saint, and the corresponding figure between the servant and the soldier on the right.

Richard Cocke has suggested that the bearded man behind Christ in Veronese's Prado picture is the patron, (16) and Philipp Fehl has proposed that the man on the far right of the Kansas City version is a portrait of Veronese himself. (17) Certainly the figure in sixteenth-century costume leaning against a pillar on the left-hand side of the Pietro Monaco engraving must represent the patron. Bordon's inclusion of two facial types that diverge from his norm implies that that the gentleman on the left may be a portrait of the donor and the person on the right could potentially be the artist himself, although the face of the latter is too youthful. However, the apparent portrait of the patron does not bear any resemblance to the sitters of Bordon's known portraits. The figure of the centurion, who might reasonably be presumed to represent a possible military patron, is simply Bordon's stock elderly figure, found in several of his paintings. Moreover, we do not know what the artist looked like. Piccini's engraving in Ridolfi's Le maraviglie dell'arte is posthumous, and the claim that the portrait in the Museo Civico in Treviso is Bordon's self portrait is unsubstantiated.

Dating the Centurion

Stylistic parallels between the Centurion and a signed altarpiece in Biancade near Treviso (Fig. 7) may help to establish when the picture was executed. As with much of Bordon's output, the Biancade altarpiece has been the subject of much deliberation about its attribution and dating, but it is now considered soundly autograph and has been dated to the fourth decade on the basis of a document commissioning the work from Ludovico Fiumicelli and Francesco Beccaruzzi. (18) The document is dated 16 August 1531, (19) and there is a further commission for a lunette from the two artists dared 11 January 1543. The existence of a commission for an altarpiece from two artists other than Bordon does not constitute proof of the date of its execution by Bordon himself and a later dating, perhaps more comparable with the Taibon altarpiece, should not be discounted. Canova has questioned this earlier dating for the Biancade altarpiece and, on the basis of the results of a restoration in 1984, has proposed an even later date of c. 1550-51 for both the Biancade and the Taibon altarpieces, which would seem more appropriate on the basis of style. (20) There can be no doubt that the Biancade altarpiece and the Mount Stuart picture are stylistically analogous. The figures and facial traits of the two St Peters and of St Mark and St Luke, the pointing hand of Christ and St Peter, and the smooth folds of the drapery with its gold embroidery and muted oranges are some of the features that link the two pictures.