Jester Or Tronie Attributed To Niccolò Frangipane, Oil On Panel From The 2nd Half Of The 16th C

Oil on panel from the second half of the 16th century, depicting a jester or other grotesque figure. Attributed to Niccolò Frangipane (active from 1563 to 1597) or his circle. He worked in northeastern Italy, particularly in Friuli, Veneto, and Romagna. Panel dimensions: 36 cm x 42 cm. Dimensions of the 16th-century frame: 61 cm x 68 cm. A certificate of historical authenticity accompanies the sale. From a typological and stylistic point of view, this magnificent panel painting can be attributed to Niccolò Frangipane, an artist whose place and date of birth are unknown, but who worked in Venice from 1563, the year he was commissioned to paint an altarpiece for the church of Sant'Eufemia in Mazzorbo. In 1564, Niccolò was admitted to the Guild of Painters of the lagoon city, while his last certain work, Autumn, now in the Civic Museum of Udine, is dated 1597. The similarities in composition between the subject of the magnificent panel presented here and the figure to the right of Bacchus in the bacchanal we have just mentioned are remarkable: the smiling and satirical figure is quite similar, dressed in our case in a bright turquoise jacket with a wide white collar, the head covered with a curious cloak belted with a rope, attributes which are often found among court jesters and jester figures, and which are also found in the Venetian bacchanal, in the engraving in the Witt Library and in another bacchanal, probably another attribution to the artist, proposed on a panel, now in the Altomani collection.