Aurelio Porfiri
The art of portraiture in painting, as in photography, has a story of its own and speaks to us and describes people and characters in a very special way. One of the most famous paintings of all time is a portrait, the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci. It is as if the talented painter or talented photographer is able to intuit something mysterious in the person, I would say divine, and is able to see an aura that is otherwise not visible.
Consider for example the beautiful portrait of Cardinal Giulio Sacchetti in the Borghese Gallery, done by Pietro da Cortona (1596-1669). The portrait was made in 1626, on the occasion of the elevation of the protagonist to the cardinalate and he is shown to us in his solemn cardinal robes, with his gaze fixed on the viewer, as if we were not looking at Cardinal Sacchetti, but as if he is watching us.
Pier Ludovico Puddu explains the painting, which was probably part of a diptych, if not a triptych: “The Portrait of Giulio Sacchetti was painted by Pietro da Cortona (Pietro Berrettini) on the occasion of the appointment of the former as cardinal, which took place in 1626, under the pontificate of Urban VIII. The choice of Berrettini for the execution of this celebratory portrait was not accidental, given that the Tuscan artist gravitated in the orbit of the Sacchetti since his arrival in Rome around 1612, and in particular Marcello, Giulio’s brother, had an important role in his artistic affirmation in the city.
“The Portrait of Marcello Sacchetti (inv. 364), a companion to that of Giulio, must certainly refer to the same context, and perhaps, according to a suggestive hypothesis by Tomaso Montanari (2019, pp. 17-18). Moreover, the portrait of Urban VIII (Rome, Capitoline Art Gallery) was executed by the same artist, always commissioned by the Sacchetti, who enjoyed wide favor on the part of Pope Barberini. The scholar advances the possibility that the paintings have been elaborated as a sort of triptych composed as follows: At the center, the image of the pontiff, represented seated, and on the sides that of the two brothers, portrayed standing and facing in a mirror-like direction to each other. If so, Cortona would have conceived the three portraits along the lines of a famous Raphaelesque model, the Portrait of Leo X with Cardinals Giulio de ‘Medici and Luigi de’ Rossi (Florence, Uffizi), whose formula had also inspired Titian in the Portrait of Paolo III with his nephews Alessandro and Ottavio Farnese (Naples, Capodimonte Museum).
“In the Cortonesque revival, the idea of representing the pope flanked by nephews and favorites would therefore have been developed in three separate paintings rather than in a single image. If the hypothesis of the triptych, although convincing, is not verifiable for the moment, the close link between the two Sacchetti portraits is instead demonstrated both by the correspondence of the dimensions and by the compositional analogies that characterize them: the characters are taken up by three quarters, both with their gaze directed towards the viewer. Both hold a handkerchief in their left hand and rest their right on the table next to them, visible only for a portion up to the edge of the canvas, an element that refers to their respective offices and personalities: in particular in the case of Giulio, portrayed in a cardinal dress, on the table there are the attributes of the open book and the inkwell, referring to his ecclesiastical role, while in that of Marcellus, it is the furniture itself that indicates his propensity as patron of the arts through the richness of the marble decoration and wooden inlays (Herrmann Fiore 1992, p. 41).
“The motif of the handkerchief and the elements of the book and of the inkwell together recall works by Raphael, respectively the Portrait of Julius II (London, National Gallery) and that, already mentioned, of Leo X. The Portrait of Giulio Sacchetti was certainly executed on the day after his elevation as a cardinal, announced in January 1626; however, on that date, Julius was in Spain as nuncio to the court of Philip IV and did not return to Rome before the end of October, from which he left as legate of Ferrara in April of the following year.
“The creation of the painting can therefore in all probability be placed in that interval of time in which the new cardinal stayed in Rome between one trip and the next, and the pendant dedicated to his brother also goes back to the same period. This chronology also agrees with the age shown by the two portrayed, at the time around forty (Briganti 1982, pp. 173-175, nn. 18-19; Testa 1991, pp. 118-119, nn. 19-20; Montanari , cit.). The pair of paintings could be included in the ‘ten portraits of the Sacchetti house’ cited together with four other works as a payment to Berrettini dated 1630 (Guarino 1997a, n. 24; Id. 1997b, p. 31), after his death by Marcello. The document is perhaps attributable to the balance of works ordered by the latter in Cortona and, given the breadth of the commissions, certifies the esteem accorded to the painter by his first patron” (galleriaborghese.beniculturali.it). That was the time when noble families invested in beauty, not financial stocks.
We can reflect in front of a portrait upon the mask and the face. We are all often forced to wear a mask because we are afraid that our real face can be seen without protection, that face which is the mirror of the soul. Meditating in front of the paintings is a healthy exercise, I would say, almost spiritual.
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