Catalogue Roberti Fine Art, TEFAF Maastricht 2026 (1) compressed - Flipbook - Page 85
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BOLOGNESE SCHOOL, 1580-1600
Portrait of a gentleman, identified as Marchese
Tommaso Sacrati, in a white ruff and black hat
inscribed in black pen on the reverse of the frame:
Marchio Thom[...] Sacrati Ferrariensis obiit an(num) 169…[sic]
oil on copper, oval
6 x 5.3 cm.
34.5 x 27 cm. (framed dimensions)
PROVENANCE
Sacrati Strozzi collection, Ferrara.
LITERATURE
J. Bentini (ed.), Collezione Sacrati Strozzi, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Ferrara, Milan 1992, p. 217,
inventory no. 2706, listed in the Armadio-Salone (as Scuola italiana, tardo secolo XVII).
The identification of the sitter, inscribed on the reverse as Marchese Tommaso Sacrati (born circa
1530?), is entirely plausible and chronologically coherent. A dating to the very end of the
seventeenth century, however, is stylistically untenable and almost certainly a later error, as the
costume and format precede that moment by nearly a century. Tommaso Sacrati served as maestro
di campo (field master of camp master) to Duke Alfonso II d’Este (1533-1597) and thus occupied a
position of military and courtly prominence during the final decades of the Este duchy prior to
Ferrara’s devolution to papal rule in 1598. His status as Marchese and father of Cardinal Francesco
Sacrati (1567–1623) confirms the family’s elevated standing within the political and ecclesiastical
networks of late Renaissance Emilia.
Of particular interest is a closely comparable oval portrait on copper, 10.5 x 8 cm, attributed to
Domenichino and sold at Farsetti in Prato, 8 November 2013, lot 199, also boasting Sacrati-Strozzi
provenance. The sitter in that work was identified as Cardinal Francesco Sacrati, son of the present
sitter. The similarity of the format, support and frame, confirms the coordinated portrait tradition
of the Sacrati family.
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