Case 8 2013/14: Portrait of a Lady called Barbara Salutati, by Domenico Puligo
Expert adviser’s statement
Reviewing Committee Secretary’s note: Please note that any illustrations referred to have not
been reproduced on the Arts Council England website Executive Summary
1. Brief Description of Item
Domenico degli Ubaldini, called ‘Il Puligo’ (Florence 1492-1527 Florence)
Portrait of a Lady, probably Barbara Rafficani Salutati, half-length, seated at a table, holding an
open book of music, with a volume inscribed PETRARCHA
Oil on panel, c. 1523-5
100 x 80.5 cms
Inscribed in gold on the cornice of the architecture: MELIORA. LATENT
Inscribed in gold on the edge of the table: TV.DEA.TV.PRESE[N]S.NOSTRO.SVCCVRRE
LABORI
A half-length portrait of a woman wearing a red dress with gold trim, and tied with a bow at her waist.
Around her neck are a string of pearls and a gold necklace. She wears a black and gold headdress with
a brooch at the centre. Seated behind a green table she holds open a book of music. A book at her
right hand is closed. The book at her left hand is open; it has text in Italian and on its edge:
‘Petrarcha’. Behind her is greenish-grey classical architecture. The upper left corner of the painting
depicts a hilly landscape at sunset. A tower and battlements can be seen behind the tree on which
stand tiny figures. Beneath an arch is another small figure. From this arch a bridge spans a stream.
2. Context
Provenance
Giovanni Battista Deti, Florence, by the second half of 16th century (according to Borghini, Il
Ripsoso (1584), if this is the painting first mentioned by Vasari) ; Purchased by George Nassau
Cowper, 3rd Earl Cowper (1738-1789) by 1779 for his Florentine palazzo (picture list no. 12 as
Andrea del Sarto) and by descent to Ethel, Lady Desborough (1867-1952) at Panshanger,
Hertfordshire; her grandson Julian Salmond, Little Durnford Manor, Salisbury; by descent to
David Salmond and subsequently on loan at Hatfield House, Firle Place and Weston Park
Exhibition History
London, Royal Academy, Works by Old Masters, 1881, no. 159
London, Grafton Galleries, National Loan Exhibition in aid of the National Gallery,
1909-10, no. 49
Florence, Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, 28th September 2002 to 5th January 2003, ‘Domenico
Puligo (1492-1527), Un protagonista dimenticato della pittura fiorentina’, cat. no. 27
Selected Bibliography
G. Vasari, Le Vite, Terza Parte, edition Milanesi, Florence 1879, vol. IV, p. 465; J.D. Passavant,
Kunstreise durch England und Be/gien, Frankfurt, 1833, p. 99, (as Andrea del Sarto); G.F.
Waagen, Works of Art and Artists in England, London, 1838, vol. Ill, p. 8, (as Andrea del
Sarto); G.F. Waagen, Treasures of Art in Great Britain, London, 1854, vol. Ill, p. 11, no. 2 (as
Andrea del Sarto); W. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A New History of Painting in Italy, London,
1866, vol.III, p. 585 (as Andrea del Sarto); B. Berenson, The Florentine Painters of the
Renaissance, New York and London, 1896, p.115; edition 1900 p. 120; edition 1920 p.145 (as
Granacci); C. Gamba, ‘ Di Alcuni ritratti del Puligo’, in Rivista d'Arte, Florence, 1909, no. 5-6,
pp. 279-280; Committee of Grafton Galleries, National Loan Exhibition in Aid of National
Gallery Funds, exhibition catalogue, 1909-10, p. 69, no. 49, reproduced p. 70; A. Venturi, Storia
deli'Arte Italiana, Milan, 1925, vol. IX, vol. I, p. 489 (as Granacci); J. Shearman, ‘ Three Portraits
by Andrea del Sarto and his Circle’, in The Burlington Magazine, 1960, no. 102, p. 63; B.
Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance, Florentine School, London, 1963, vol. I, p. 185,
reproduced vol. II, pl. 1414; S. M. Bruce Lockhart, The Work of Domenico Puligo (MA Thesis,
Courtauld Institute, 1973); H. Colin Slim, ‘ A Motet for Machiavelli's Mistress and a Chanson for
a Courtesan’, in Essays Presented to Myron P. Golmore, ed. S. Bertelli, and G. Ramakus,
Florence, 1978, vol. II, p. 457-472, pl. 1a; P. La Porta, ‘ Ritratto di Domenico Puligo’, in
Prospettiva, 1992, p. 39, fig. 22; L.A. Waldman The Date of Rustici's Madonna relief for the
Florentine silk guild, in The Burlington Magazine, no. 139, december 1997, p. 872, fig. 49,
reproduced; E. Capretti and S. Padovani, Domenico Puligo, un protagonista dimenticato della
pittura fiorentina, catalogue of the exhibition at the Palazzo Pitti, Galleria Palatina, 2002- 2003,
p. 122, no. 27, reproduced p. 123; M. Feldman and B. Gordon, The Courtesan's Arts, Oxford, 2006,
p. 146-147; G. Langdon, Medici Women, Portraits of Power, Love, and Betrayal, Toronto, 2006, p.
26 and p. 164; A. Bayer, Art and Love in Renaissance Italy, exh cat., Metropolitan Museum of
Art, New York, 2008-2009, p. 46, reproduced;
3. Waverley Criteria
This picture meets Waverley Criterion 3 as a portrait with a very good claim to represent a
fascinating and significant individual in Renaissance Italy, Barbara Rafficani Salutati. Celebrated as a
courtesan who was famed for her beauty and her musical talent - an important genre of picture in the
Renaissance - Barbara was also the mistress of Niccolo` Machiavelli. This portrait is therefore of
great interest to academics of the history of the Renaissance.
Comparable works by Domenico Puligo in the UK, public and private collections
Portrait of a Man writing, Firle Place, Sussex (see exh cat Florence 2002, cat 26)
Portrait of a Man (‘Il Fattore di san Marco’), Firle Place, Sussex (see exh cat Florence 2002, cat 28)
Portrait of a Man, Bromfield, Oakly Park (Ludlow, Shropshire) (see exh cat Florence 2002,
reproduced fig. 5)
Portrait of a Young Man (Pietro Carnesecchi?), Bowood House, Calne, Wiltshire
Portrait of a Woman, Hampton Court, Royal Collection
Young Woman, La Fornarina, Haddo House, Aberdeenshire, National Trust for Scotland
DETAILED CASE
1. Detailed description of item if more than in Executive Summary, and any comments
Domenico degli Ubaldini, called ‘Il Puligo’ (b. Florence 1492- d. Florence sept. 1527) trained in
Florence with Ridolfo Ghirlandaio and in the workshops of Antonio del Ceraiuolo and Andrea del
Sarto. He painted both religious works and portraits. One of Puligo’s most important large-scale
religious works is The Vision of St Bernard, c.1525, Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery. It is generally
agreed that it was as a portraitist that he excelled and his portraits demonstrate his interest in the latest
models, particularly by Raphael and Titian. Their influence can be seen in his three-quarter length
standing figures, such as the so-called ‘Fattore of San Marco’ (c. 1524, Firle Place, Sussex, UK) and
in the portrait under discussion of Barbara Rafficani Salutati (c1523-5). This latter work reflects
Puligo’s awareness of and interest in the genre of the Venetian courtesan portrait, an important
category of picture in the Renaissance. This work has the added allure that it is not simply a generic
example of the type, but is very likely to be a known figure in 16th -century Florence and as such of
great significance to academics of the history of the Renaissance.
Of the six portraits by the artist which are today in the UK, two are in public collections- Portrait of a
Woman (Hampton Court, Royal Collection) and Young Woman, La Fornarina (Haddo House,
Aberdeenshire, National Trust for Scotland) but both are much inferior in quality. Of the four in
private collections, the portrait of Barbara Rafficani Salutati may be compared with two portraits at
Firle Place, Sussex – the ‘Fattore of San Marco’ mentioned above and the Portrait of a Man Writing
(1523). Also noteworthy is a three -quarter length work, Portrait of a Man with a view of Florence at
Oakly Park, Shropshire.
Puligo is a notable, if not well-known, Florentine artist active in the first three decades of the 16th
century, whose work bears stylistic comparison with (and has often been confused with) so-called
Mannerist artists like Pontormo and Rosso. His oeuvre has yet to be fully understood and catalogued
but the sensitive and original handling of his portraits has attracted the attention of scholars and
connoisseurs since the early 20th century.
2. Detailed explanation of the outstanding significance of the item
This portrait has exceptional importance as a probable representation of a particular and fascinating
Renaissance individual, Barbara Rafficani Salutati, a celebrated courtesan and the mistress of the
Florentine writer and humanist Niccolo` Machiavelli (1469-1527), from c.1523 until his death. The
portrait is referred to in the second edition of Vasari’s Vite, (1568):
‘[Puligo] also painted a portrait of Barbara the Florentine, a famous and beautiful courtesan of the
time, beloved of many not less for her beauty than for her fine manners, and especially because she
was a good musician and sang divinely’.
Although described by Vasari (and Borghini) as ‘Barbara the Florentine’, Barbara was in fact not a
Florentine but a Roman of the Salutati family. However, she often resided in Florence where she was
famed for her musical gifts and acting ability as well as for her beauty. She was also a poetess, leaving
a small body of work. Niccolo` Machiavelli met her in 1523 when he was 54 and she not yet 30.
Partly as a vehicle for her talents as an actress and a singer, Machiavelli wrote his drama, ‘La Clizia’,
late in 1524, including several canzoni expressly for her to sing at its first performance in 1525.
Iconographical details in the painting would seem to refer to Barbara’s name - the tower and the water
to the legend of her namesake, St Barbara, whose pagan father shut her up in a tower, but not before
she was baptized in a nearby pond (Puligo painted another, more generic, Portrait of a Woman as
Saint Barbara, c.1525, today in the Hermitage, Saint Petersburg, in which the sitter holds the tower on
her lap).
This portrait demonstrates Puligo’s interest in the Venetian genre of courtesan portraits, an important
category of picture during the Renaissance. The inscriptions tell us of the sitter’s accomplishments;
above her head the motto ‘MELIORA LATENT’, which can be understood to mean ‘virtue is often
hidden within an unlikely exterior’, and may derive from Ovid’s story of Apollo and Daphne. Visible
on the open page of the volume on the table in front of her left hand (which has ‘Petrarcha’ inscribed
on its edge) are the first 4 lines of sonnet 213 from Petrarch’s Canzoniere, in which Petrarch describes
his singer enchantress, Laura - the archetype of the ideal woman or mistress. Across the bottom of the
painting is inscribed line 404 from Virgil’s Aeneid – the implication is that our sitter is to be regarded
as a Roman goddess whose beauty and virtue sustain the endeavours of men.
The open book of music on which her hands rest is mostly legible. It contains two compositions- one
on each page; at her right hand, a motet with mezzosoprano clef ( for which no source has yet been
found but which may have been commissioned especially for this portrait), the accompanying text is
drawn from the Song of Songs (6 words obscured): ‘How beautiful you are, my love; how beautiful
you are and how lovely, and how lovely your voice; may your voice sound in my ears, for your voice
is most sweet, your face lovely’- referring to the subjects physical beauty but also to her singing
voice. The music below her left hand was however well known in the late 15th early 16th centuries; the
music and text are from the initial lines of the song ‘J’ayme bien mon amy de bonne amour certaine.’
The first 3 lines read: ‘I love my friend well With a fine and true love Because I well know that he
loves me.’ It is not known by whom, or for whom, the portrait was originally commissioned. It is
tempting to surmise that it was commissioned by Machiavelli for his mistress Barbara. Machiavelli
had known Andrea del Sarto (Puligo’s teacher) since 1522-4, when Del Sarto helped paint scenery for
a production of his play ‘La Mandragola’.
Sources refer to the painting as being in the house of a Giovanni Battista Deti in Florence during the
second half of the sixteenth century. The painting comes from an exceptionally important collection
of pictures formed in Florence by an English resident, the 3rd Earl Cowper, in the 18th century (a
collection that once included the small and large ‘Cowper Madonnas’, by Raphael, now in the
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC). Variously ascribed to Andrea del Sarto (Waagen, 1854 and
Crowe and Cavalcaselle, 1864) and to Francesco Granacci (Mortimer Clapp, 1916), this painting was
first attributed to Puligo by Carlo Gamba in 1909 (‘Di alcuni ritratti del Puligo’, Rivista d’Arte, VI,
(1909), pp 277-280). The attribution has not been questioned by recent scholars.