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Jun 11, 2007

Oct 26, 2010

Portrait of a Couple

c. 1580–88

Northern Italy, late 16th century

Oil on canvas

Framed: 132 x 173 x 10.5 cm (51 15/16 x 68 1/8 x 4 1/8 in.); Unframed: 99.8 x 140.5 cm (39 5/16 x 55 5/16 in.)

Holden Collection 1916.793

Location

118 Italian Renaissance

Did you know?

The bejeweled martin (weasel) was a coveted fashion accessory in Renaissance Europe.

Description

While the attribution remains hotly debated, this work exemplifies how Italian portraiture of the 1500s could articulate family alliances through marriage. The inscription gives the sitters’ ages as 35 and 28, and their elaborate jewelry, weapons, and garments, made of expensive materials, convey their elite status. The marten skin attached to the woman’s waist-its head decorated with gems-symbolized propriety. These expressions of wealth convey achievements and position rather than accurate personalities, and the figures, though lifelike, stand in awkward relationship to each other, their interaction one of alliance not love.

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Inscriptions

Inscription

inscribed upper left: AETA, SVAE, ANNO. XXXV, upper right: AETA. SVAE. ANNO. XXVIII

Provenance

James Jackson Jarves (1884). Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, Cleveland.

Citations

Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917. Mentioned: p. 29, cat. no. 28; Reproduced: p. 60, No. 28 archive.org

G. U. "The Holden Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1917): 19-34. Mentioned: pp. 19, 20; reproduced: p. 35 www.jstor.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925. Mentioned and Reproduced: 25 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. Reproduced: p. 29 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 411 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. Reproduced: p. 96 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. Reproduced: p. 96 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. Reproduced: p. 113 archive.org

The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. Reproduced: p. 458; Mentioned: p. 459-460

Exhibition history

Boston, 1883: American Exhibition of Foregin Products, Arts, and Manufactures: Art Department, "Jarves Collection,' pp. 20-22. (A Checklist of the collection exhibited by James Jackson Jarves at the Boston exposition; the collection was viewed and subsequently purchased, in toto, by Mr and Mrs L. E. Holden of Cleveland.)

New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1912: "Loan Exhibition of the Holden Collection," catalogue: Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. vIII, no. 10 (October 1912), pp. 174-183; author Bryson Burroughs.)

CMA, 1916: "The Inaugural Exhibition of CMA," cat. no. 27.

Denver Art Museum, March1-April 30, 1956: "Clothers Make the Man," repr. p. 13 in catalogue.

CMA, 1962: "Art and Humanism in the Renaissance," (no catalogue).

Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916).

The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936).

Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956).

Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962).

Cite this page

{{cite web|title=Portrait of a Couple|url=https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.793|year=c. 1580–88|access-date=30 September 2023|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

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Portrait of a Couple

Portrait of a Couple

Northern Italy, late 16th century

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