id:			125251
accession number:	1947.210
share license status:	CC0
url:			https://clevelandart.org/art/1947.210
updated:		2023-01-10 22:39:27.146000

Portrait of a Prelate, mid-1500s. Girolamo da Carpi (Italian, c. 1501–1556). Oil on canvas; framed: 171 x 138.5 x 12.5 cm (67 5/16 x 54 1/2 x 4 15/16 in.); unframed: 140.4 x 108 cm (55 1/4 x 42 1/2 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund 1947.210

title:				Portrait of a Prelate
title in original language:	
series:				
series in original language:	
creation date:			mid-1500s
creation date earliest:		1540
creation date latest:		1556
current location:		
creditline:			Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund
copyright:			

---

culture:	Italy, 16th century
technique:	oil on canvas
department:	European Painting and Sculpture
collection:	P - Italian 16th & 17th Century
type:		Painting
find spot:	
catalogue raisonne: 

---

CREATORS

* Girolamo da Carpi (Italian, c. 1501–1556)  - artist

---

measurements: Framed: 171 x 138.5 x 12.5 cm (67 5/16 x 54 1/2 x 4 15/16 in.); Unframed: 140.4 x 108 cm (55 1/4 x 42 1/2 in.)
state of the work:	
edition of the work: 	

support materials:


inscriptions:

	inscription:	Inscription on book: MUNDOS LIBENTER ASPICIT
	translation:	
	remark:		

---

CURRENT EXHIBITIONS

	title:		The Venetian Tradition
	opening date:   1956-11-08T05:00:00
	<i>The Venetian Tradition</i>. The Cleveland Museum of Art (November 8, 1956-January 1, 1957).

---

LEGACY EXHIBITIONS

* CMA, 1956: "The Venetian Tradition," cat. by Henry S. Francis, cat. no. 55 (Note: the second part of the inscription given in the catalogue is non-existent).

---

PROVENANCE

	By 1946 Italico Brass (Venice, Italy)
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


	Alessandro Brass (Venice, Italy), sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1947.
	date: 
	footnotes: 	
	citations: 	


---

fun fact:


digital description:
Girolamo da Carpi, a court artist from Ferrara, was influenced by the grace and intellectual artificiality found in Italian Mannerist art, seen in the flowing S-curve of the sitter's clothing and his delicate and attenuated fingers. The sitter's dress identifies him as a prelate, a high-ranking member of the Catholic clergy. His costume includes a dark mantel with red lining over a gauzy, white <em>rochet</em> and the three-cornered hat, called a<em> biretta</em>. In his right hand he holds a book whose cover displays an elephant, standing in water, looking at the moon. This motif symbolized purity, and the sitter's virtue is further emphasized through the book's inscription, MUNDOS LIBENTER ASPICIT, which means, "The moon beholds the pure with pleasure." While several noble Renaissance households used this design for their family emblems, none have yet proven related to the prelate in this painting and so his identity remains unknown.

wall description:

---

RELATED WORKS

---

CITATIONS

	The Cleveland Museum of Art. <em>The Cleveland Museum of Art Catalogue of Paintings, Part 3: European Paintings of the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries</em>. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1982.
	page number: 	Reproduced: p. 324; Mentioned: p. 325
	url:		

	Pattanaro, Alessandra, and Girolamo da Carpi. Girolamo da Carpi. 2021, 245.
	page number: 	Mentioned: p. 245 RA3.
	url:		

---

IMAGES

web:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1947.210/1947.210_web.jpg
print:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1947.210/1947.210_print.jpg
full:	https://openaccess-cdn.clevelandart.org/1947.210/1947.210_full.tif