‘Portrait of Matteo Realdo Colombo’ by Cecchino del Salviati
This portrait on panel belongs to the collection of Tatton Park, a National Trust property, where until recently it was known rather enigmatically only as ‘A Physician, Italian (Florentine) School’. It hangs in the Entrance Hall at Tatton Park, in the same spot it has occupied since 1897 when it was bought by Wilbraham, the 1st (and last) Earl Egerton of Tatton. At the time, it was thought to be a portrait of the Roland Hill, a physician whose descendant married into the Egerton family. But a comparison with known portraits of Roland Hill shows he did not look like our sitter, and Roland never went to Italy which would make it unlikely he would have been painted by an Italian artist.
The painting presented a number of conservation issues, including evidence of old losses to the paint layer, extensive overpaint, flaking of the paint, a discoloured old varnish, and structural issues in the panel itself. The cracked paint was causing reflections that made it hard to see into the picture, and a thick layer of dirt further inhibited viewing. It was clear that there was a damage in the sitter’s right eye, but his left eye looked rather good, and with a strong torch Simon could see well-painted details such as the buckle of the sitter’s belt. The awkward position of the wrist might look unnatural to us but is typical of the Mannerist style of painting which was popular in Italy from the 1520s till the 1590s when it gave way to the Baroque style. Simon noticed, in spite of the overpaint, dirt and old varnish, that the fingers were well painted.
So, in addition to the question of solving the mystery of who the artist and the sitter were, it was also a meaty conservation project. Two members of the SGS team worked on this picture: Simon himself and our senior conservator Léonie van der Graaf ACR.
Bendor’s initial impression was that the portrait could be the work of the Italian artist Parmigianino (1503-1540), an Italian Mannerist painter who is perhaps best known for his Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror; his mastery in depicting himself at the age of only 21 drew the admiration of his contemporaries. Parmigianino’s ‘Portrait of a man with a book’ in York Gallery is painted in a similar style to the Tatton Park panel and with similar details such as the pattern of the rug. The disregard for perspective in the depiction of the book is also comparable.
On the reverse of the panel there was a cradle which was intended to provide support to the panel but whose members were no longer mobile. The panel had been thinned in the past, and had also suffered significant woodworm damage at some point in its history, though no longer active. The panel comprises two boards that have been butt-joined, and which appeared to have been separated and then rejoined in the past. The join, although secure and supported by the cradle, was poorly aligned (even open in one area), with much old fill material in places, and causing a visually disturbing step in the background behind the sitter’s head.
When assessed under UV, the Tatton Park panel showed darker spots of later retouching, including along the old panel join and to an area next to the sitter’s face that looked like a knot in the wood, and a yellow green haze indicating an old organic varnish. Under the naked eye, the old retouching was crude and visually disturbing, and the varnish appeared dull, patchy, dark and discoloured. The paint and ground layers were actively lifting and delaminating in a number of areas across the painting, running with the grain and especially along the panel split; some of the flaking was in areas of retouching but in others it was original paint. The background appeared to be completely covered in later overpaint.
The painting was examined extensively under the microscope, which confirmed the above findings and showed that the original paint layers appeared to be of good quality. Certainly the original paint looked significantly better than the later overpaint, being more modulated and artistically worked, with the original brushstrokes clear. The original paint layers were very thinly applied and were obviously vulnerable to mechanical damage. It was clear that harsh cleaning in the past had caused areas of abrasion and thinness in places. Under the microscope it was also possible to see that in the area of the background there were at least two retouching campaigns. In the area of the black costume there was crude overpaint covering larger damages but it also looked possible that the whole thing had been overpainted and reworked in the past. A slightly lighter more grey-black costume appeared to be visible at the very edge of the costume where it met the background. Interestingly, where the black costume met the face it was clear that the artist then painted the beard later -over the black costume. The beard in this area had then been overpainted but small tests and examination under the microscope revealed the presence of painted hair strands which were exposed during treatment.
Extensive testing to assess the viability of removing the old varnish and overpaint was carried out in very small unobtrusive areas to the side of the painting, then small tests in various parts of the composition, which proved positive so were expanded.
To reveal the original paint layers, two campaigns of cleaning had to be carried out: one to remove the old varnish, and the other to remove the later overpaint.
What was revealed was a much higher quality painting than had previously been visible. The face of the sitter is very well painted, with a good three-dimensional nose. In the background, what was previously an undistinguished brown area has revealed an architectural detailing of a niche within which the sitter is placed, giving the painting a much greater three dimensional feel.
However, while it was possible to remove the top most layers of crude overpaint in the areas of the black costume, it was concluded after testing that it was not possible to remove the lower layer of overpaint in that area (which was effectively a reworked costume) without damaging the thin original layers, and so after consultation with conservators at the National Trust it was decided to leave the costume as it is now. This meant that in places the costume looks cruder and less accomplished than might have been the case if the original paint layers had been exposed. Interestingly small areas of the original were revealed at the edges of the sleeve where a small tassel that had been overpainted now showed.
The cleaning exposed the artist’s original paint, but it inevitably also exposed areas where the original paint had been lost due to past damage.
On assessing it closely with Bendor after cleaning, Simon commented that something about the technique in which the portrait had been painted suggested that the artist might have been a wall painter. The thought struck Bendor that the key to finding out who might have painted this picture would be to look for an artist influenced by Parmigianino and also working in fresco painting.
Looking back at the archive material on the artwork, Bendor saw that the work had been purchased by Wilbraham from the dealers Colnaghi, who had bought it at auction as a work by Cecchino del Salviati. Salviati, born in Florence in 1510, worked all over Italy. In his self-portrait, he sets himself into a niche rather like the alcove uncovered by our conservation treatment. He also painted frescoes, for example at Santa Maria dell’Anima in Rome. His work clearly showed the influence of Parmigianino, but also demonstrated a sketchy painting technique much like the Tatton Park picture. And indeed there are further similarities, which can also be noted in a portrait by Salviati in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence: the handwriting on the letter held by the sitter is like the writing on the book of the Tatton Park picture, the eyes of both sitters are outlined in dark giving a mascara effect, the wrist is depicted in a mannerist pose, and the harsh separation of the costume from the background gives a cut-out appearance.
With a likely artist now identified, the question remained who was the sitter. Bendor thought that the diagram in the open book might help solve that question: consulting Prof. Allan Chapman, he was told that the diagram depicts a heart, and so went down the route of searching for physicians active in Italy who made significant discoveries about the heart. His research led him to Realdo Colombo (1516-1559), an anatomist who published an anatomical treatise in 15 volumes which includes several important original observations, including a significant description of the action of the heart. There is another known portrait of him. Interestingly, he was a friend of the artist Michelangelo, and had hoped that Michelangelo would illustrate his treatise, but that did not come to pass: the 15 volumes do not include any illustrations.
While Bendor was carrying out this research, Simon and Léonie were busy carrying out sensitive structural treatment to the panel, and a sympathetic campaign of retouching to reintegrate areas of lost paint. On seeing the finished picture, Bendor said: ‘as usual I am in awe of the transformation Simon has achieved. The cleaned and restored picture is far better than I could have hoped, with a new depth and vibrancy, bringing the sitter to life’.
David Ekserdjian, the expert on Parmigianino and the artists he influenced , was invited to the studio to view the picture. He approved an attribution to Salviati, saying: ‘this portrait fits very decently with what we know of his work’.
With the conservation treatment complete and the mysteries of sitter and artist solved, the picture was ready to return to Tatton Park. When you go to visit it, know that Tatton Park is now the only place in the UK where a securely attributed portrait by Salviati can be seen.