Lot number 47 - Auction 165
HALBFIGURENPORTRAIT EINES VORNEHMEN MANNES

PROSPERO FONTANA (Formerly attributed by Voss to Bartolomeo Passerotti) 1512 Bologna - 1597 ibid. HALF-LENGTH PORTRAIT OF A NOBLEMAN Oil on poplar panel. 90 x 68 cm (F. 104.5 x 84 cm). Part. old rest., part. old retouching, two min. vertical cracks due to tension. Frame. The painting offered here, formerly attributed by Voss to Bartolomeo Passerotti, was correctly reassigned in 1987 by Angela Ghirardi to the Bolognese painter Prospero Fontana (cf. accompanying letter dated 7 March 1987). See also Vera Fortunati Pietrantonio, Pittura Bolognese del '500, 2 vols., Grafis Edizioni, Bologna 1986, pp. 543-594 (Angela Ghirardi), concerning Passerotti. Furthermore accompanied by extensive correspondence with the Bavarian State Painting Collections and the Staatliche Museen Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Berlin. Literature: Cf. Corinna Passerotti (1529-1592), Part II, p. 238, A40 (Worms 1987). Provenance: Former Collection Otto Sohn-Rethel, Düsseldorf; Galerie Malmedé, Cologne; Lempertz Auction House, Cologne, Auction 552, 1976.