Skip to main content
Advanced Search
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
Portrait of Giambattista Memmo
Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
© Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami. All rights reserved.

Portrait of Giambattista Memmo

Artist/Maker (Italy, ca. 1470-1531)
Dateca. 1510
Mediumtempera on wood
DimensionsSight: 17 1/2 x 14 in. (44.5 x 35.6 cm)
Framed: 25 3/4 x 21 1/2 x 4 in. (65.4 x 54.6 x 10.2 cm)
ClassificationsVisual Works
Credit LineGift of The Samuel H. Kress Foundation
Terms
    Object number61.015.000
    On View
    Not on view
    Collections
    DescriptionThe dignified subject of this portrait, Giambattista Memmo (d. 1536), is typical of the individuals celebrated for their individual character and achievements in Renaissance portraiture. Memmo came from one the most illustrious, ancient families of Venice whose members included doges and procurators of St. Mark’s, the highest honors attainable within the Venetian oligarchy. A distinguished mathematician and Greek translator, he was awarded a chair in mathematics at the University of Venice in 1530. A copy of this portrait, inscribed “GIOVANNI BAPTISTUS MEMMI MDXXIX,” is in the Palazzo Mocenigo at San Samuele in Venice. The format of the portrait – a half-length figure in three-quarter view, silhouetted against a deep landscape background – recalls the late portraits of the premier Venetian painter Giovanni Bellini (ca. 1431/6-1516), to whom the Lowe’s portrait was attributed when it entered the museum’s collection. Catena’s mastery in rendering textures is revealed in his refined execution of the sitter’s soft hair and the gold embroidery and delicate folds of his white undergarment.
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Portrait of Bartolomeo Cepolla
    Veneziano Jacometto
    possibly 1470s
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Portrait of a Man
    Filippo Mazzola
    ca. 1500
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Madonna Adoring the Child
    Boccaccio Boccaccino
    ca. 1510
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Bridge of Sighs - Between a Palace and a Prison, (North), Venice, Italy
    Underwood & Underwood
    ca. 1910
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    The Lion of Venice Beside San Marco, (North), Italy
    Underwood & Underwood
    ca. 1910
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Christ Blessing
    Benedetto Diana
    ca. 1500
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Madonna and Child with St. Jerome
    Benedetto Diana
    ca. 1504
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Bust of Christ as a Child
    Andrea della Robbia
    late 15th to early 16th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Bust of Saint John the Baptist as a Child
    Andrea della Robbia
    late 15th to early 16th century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Portrait of Potatow and Portrait of Omai
    Artist Unknown
    1784-1786
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    Portrait of a Roman Matron
    Artist Unknown
    late 2nd to early 3rd century
    Collection of the Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami
    The Star (Greta Garbo)
    Andy Warhol
    1981
    eMuseum
    Copyright © eMuseum