Portrait of Giovanni II Bentivoglio

1480 · National Gallery of Art, Washington

portrait

The subject of this painting, a companion-piece to the portrait of his wife Ginevra Bentivoglio, was ruler of Bologna for thirty-three years. Quattrocento portraits were expected to trace with cartographic precision exact physical appearences. Profile portraits were probably preferred because they recall imperial likenesses on ancient Roman coins.

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About the Artist

Ercole de' Roberti

1456 – 1494

Italian painter, active mainly in Ferrara. He succeeded Cosmè Tura as court painter to the Este in 1486, but little is known of his life. Earlier he appears to have assisted Frencesco Cossa for some years, and with Cossa and Tura he ranks as the leading artist of the 15th century Ferrarese school. The only picture reasonably certainly his is the altarpiece with a Madonna Enthroned with Saints (1480) painted for Santa Maria in Porto at Ravenna and now in the Brera, Milan. Other works, however, can be confidently given to him because of his distinctive style.

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