id: 97155 accession number: 1916.793 share license status: CC0 url: https://clevelandart.org/art/1916.793 updated: 2023-08-25 11:18:28.123000 Portrait of a Couple, c. 1580–88. Northern Italy, late 16th century. Oil on canvas; framed: 132 x 173 x 10.5 cm (51 15/16 x 68 1/8 x 4 1/8 in.); unframed: 99.8 x 140.5 cm (39 5/16 x 55 5/16 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Holden Collection 1916.793 title: Portrait of a Couple title in original language: series: series in original language: creation date: c. 1580–88 creation date earliest: 1580 creation date latest: 1588 current location: 118 Italian Renaissance creditline: Holden Collection copyright: --- culture: Northern Italy, late 16th century technique: oil on canvas department: European Painting and Sculpture collection: P - Italian 16th & 17th Century type: Painting find spot: catalogue raisonne: --- CREATORS --- measurements: Framed: 132 x 173 x 10.5 cm (51 15/16 x 68 1/8 x 4 1/8 in.); Unframed: 99.8 x 140.5 cm (39 5/16 x 55 5/16 in.) state of the work: edition of the work: support materials: inscriptions: inscription: inscribed upper left: AETA, SVAE, ANNO. XXXV, upper right: AETA. SVAE. ANNO. XXVIII translation: remark: --- CURRENT EXHIBITIONS title: Inaugural Exhibition opening date: 1916-06-06T05:00:00 Inaugural Exhibition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (co-organizer) (June 6-September 20, 1916). title: The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition opening date: 1936-06-26T04:00:00 The Twentieth Anniversary Exhibition: The Official Art Exhibit of the Great Lakes Exposition. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (June 26-October 4, 1936). title: Art: The International Language opening date: 1956-10-02T04:00:00 Art: The International Language. The Cleveland Museum of Art (October 2-November 4, 1956). title: Art and Humanism in the Renaissance opening date: 1962-01-23T05:00:00 Art and Humanism in the Renaissance. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (January 23-February 25, 1962). --- LEGACY EXHIBITIONS * Boston, 1883: American Exhibition of Foregin Products, Arts, and Manufactures: Art Department, "Jarves Collection,' pp. 20-22. (A Checklist of the collection exhibited by James Jackson Jarves at the Boston exposition; the collection was viewed and subsequently purchased, in toto, by Mr and Mrs L. E. Holden of Cleveland.)
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1912: "Loan Exhibition of the Holden Collection," catalogue: Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, vol. vIII, no. 10 (October 1912), pp. 174-183; author Bryson Burroughs.)
CMA, 1916: "The Inaugural Exhibition of CMA," cat. no. 27.
Denver Art Museum, March1-April 30, 1956: "Clothers Make the Man," repr. p. 13 in catalogue.
CMA, 1962: "Art and Humanism in the Renaissance," (no catalogue). --- PROVENANCE James Jackson Jarves (1884). Mrs. Liberty E. Holden, Cleveland. date: footnotes: citations: --- fun fact: The bejeweled martin (weasel) was a coveted fashion accessory in Renaissance Europe. digital description: wall description: While the attribution remains hotly debated, this work exemplifies how Italian portraiture of the 1500s could articulate family alliances through marriage. The inscription gives the sitters’ ages as 35 and 28, and their elaborate jewelry, weapons, and garments, made of expensive materials, convey their elite status. The marten skin attached to the woman’s waist-its head decorated with gems-symbolized propriety. These expressions of wealth convey achievements and position rather than accurate personalities, and the figures, though lifelike, stand in awkward relationship to each other, their interaction one of alliance not love. --- RELATED WORKS --- CITATIONS Rubinstein-Bloch, Stella. Catalogue of a Collection of Paintings, Etc. Presented by Mrs. Liberty E. Holden to the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1917. page number: Mentioned: p. 29, cat. no. 28; Reproduced: p. 60, No. 28 url: https://archive.org/details/Holden_80856/page/n39 G. U. "The Holden Collection." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 4, no. 2 (1917): 19-34. page number: Mentioned: pp. 19, 20; reproduced: p. 35 url: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25136067 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1925. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: 25 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook_80839/page/n27 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1928. page number: Reproduced: p. 29 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1928/page/n33 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Handbook. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1958. page number: Mentioned and Reproduced: cat. no. 411 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1958/page/n75 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966. page number: Reproduced: p. 96 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1966/page/n120 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969. page number: Reproduced: p. 96 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1969/page/n120 The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1978. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1978. page number: Reproduced: p. 113 url: https://archive.org/details/CMAHandbook1978/page/n133 The Cleveland Museum of Art. The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982. page number: Reproduced: p. 458; Mentioned: p. 459-460 url: --- IMAGES web: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.793/1916.793_web.jpg print: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.793/1916.793_print.jpg full: https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1916.793/1916.793_full.tif