Cardinal Bentivoglio

Jean Morin (1595/1605-1650) was a French baroque artist chiefly known for his engravings after leading artists of the time, such as Anthony van Dyck and Philippe de Champaigne.

Morin's bust portrait of Cardinal Guido Bentivoglio d'Aragona (1579-1644), shows him slightly turned to the right, with short hair, moustache and beard, wearing a flat collar and buttoned cloak, and set in an octagonal frame. It is inscribed in Latin, in a way that imitates incised stone, identifying the subject and his date of death (1645) - except this is wrong, as the Cardinal had died in September 1644! The original, full-length portrait by van Dyck, in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence, on which the engraving is based, dates from 1623, as indicated in the lower left inscription. The Bentivoglio portrait thus precedes, and is quite distinct from, van Dyck's portrait etchings (and their subsequent engravings), featuring celebrated artists and courtiers and known as The Iconography.

A patron of the arts and skilled papal diplomat, Bentivoglio was nonetheless notorious as one of the signatories of the 1633 papal condemnation of his erstwhile friend Galileo.

See:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guido_Bentivoglio

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Morin_(artist)

Dr Mark Stocker   Curator, Historical International Art    June 2017