Portrait of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli as a Child
Giuseppe Molteni , ca. 1830
Description
The small painting portrays the founder of the museum, born in 1822, at nine years old. The work is in a frame lined with velvet and decorated with the family coat of arms in bronze. It was a pair to a miniature on paper with the portrait of Matilde, Gian Giacomo’s sister, in a similar frame (now in a private collection). The unusual difference between the techniques of the two portraits could be explained by the fact that Gian Giacomos’ face was the study for a larger full-figure portrait, Gian Giacomo as a Boy Playing with Soap Bubbles, exhibited at Brera in 1831 and today in the Salar Jung Museum of Hyderabad (India).
The painting was commissioned from Molteni by Gian Giacomo’s parents, Giuseppe Poldi Pezzoli and Rosina Trivulzio. Molteni was linked to this noble Milanese family by close friendship and had already portrayed the couple in 1829. The spontaneity of the pose, with the head slightly bowed, is matched by an extraordinary pictorial sophistication in the rendering of the boy’s soft fair hair, the black satin of his gown and the starched linen collar.
Data Sheet
Author
Giuseppe Molteni, 1800-1867
Date
ca. 1830
Material and technique
Oil on panel
Measures
19 cm x 15 cm
Acquisition
Camilla Gabba Cavezzali bequest, 1917
Inventory number
0266
RESTAURO
location
Murano Glass Room
The room was the bedroom of Gian Giacomo Poldi Pezzoli and houses both the collection of archaeological objects and the collection of Murano glass, about two hundred pieces purchased largely by Gian Giacomo himself and initially kept in the Studiolo Dantesco. The Murano Glass Room was severely damaged by bombing in ’43: the lacunar ceiling, the frieze frescoed by Luigi Scrosati and the fireplace, also by Scrosati, were lost. The beautiful doors carved by Giuseppe Ripamonti and some furnishings were saved.
collection
Paintings
The Museum hosts over 300 paintings. Among them, many Italian works from the Renaissance: masterpieces from Tuscany (Botticelli, Piero della Francesca, Pollaiuolo), Lombardy (Luini, Boltraffio, Solario) and Veneto (Bellini, Mantegna). Important is also the group of 18th century Italian painting (Guardi, Canaletto, Tiepolo, Fra Galgario). In the collection, there are mainly portraits and small size paintings.