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Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Portrait of Giambattista Memmo
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
© Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. All rights reserved.

Portrait of Giambattista Memmo

Artist/Maker (Italy, ca. 1470-1531)
Dateca. 1510
Mediumtempera on wood
DimensionsSight: 17 1/2 x 14 in. (44.5 x 35.6 cm)
Framed: 25 3/4 x 21 1/2 x 4 in. (65.4 x 54.6 x 10.2 cm)
ClassificationsVisual Works
Credit LineGift of The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Terms
    Object number61.015.000
    DescriptionThe dignified subject of this portrait, Giambattista Memmo (d. 1536), is typical of the individuals celebrated for their individual character and achievements in Renaissance portraiture. Memmo came from one the most illustrious, ancient families of Venice whose members included doges and procurators of St. Mark’s, the highest honors attainable within the Venetian oligarchy. A distinguished mathematician and Greek translator, he was awarded a chair in mathematics at the University of Venice in 1530. A copy of this portrait, inscribed “GIOVANNI BAPTISTUS MEMMI MDXXIX,” is in the Palazzo Mocenigo at San Samuele in Venice. The format of the portrait – a half-length figure in three-quarter view, silhouetted against a deep landscape background – recalls the late portraits of the premier Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1431/6-1516), to whom the Lowe’s portrait was attributed when it entered the museum’s collection. Catena’s mastery in rendering textures is revealed in his refined execution of the sitter’s soft hair and the gold embroidery and delicate folds of his white undergarment.
    On View
    Not on view
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