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Shown from the chest up, a pale-skinned man with a narrow face looks at us from in front of a distant landscape in this vertical portrait painting. His body and face are angled to our left, so he looks at us from the corners of his brown eyes. He has dark, low brows, a straight nose, high cheekbones, and his rose-pink lips turn slightly down at the corners. Chestnut-brown waves fall over his ears and down the back of his neck from under a tall, brimless, rounded, black cap. His black robe has a high neck lined with a white undergarment. Far behind him, a grassy hill leads up to steep, rocky outcroppings, with those to our right dotted with trees. The land rolls into the distance to meet mountains, hazy blue along the horizon, which comes halfway up this composition. The clear sky above deepens from pale blue along the mountains to slate blue across the top.

Pietro Perugino

Portrait of Lorenzo di Credi, 1488

West Building, Main Floor — Gallery 6

Medium

oil on panel transferred to canvas

Dimensions

original panel: 44 x 30.5 cm (17 5/16 x 12 in.)
overall (with added border): 46 x 32.5 cm (18 1/8 x 12 13/16 in.)

framed: 63.8 x 50.8 x 5.7 cm (25 1/8 x 20 x 2 1/4 in.)

Credit Line

Widener Collection

Accession Number

1942.9.38

Artists / Makers

Pietro Perugino (painter) Umbrian, c. 1450 - 1523

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
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Inscription

by later hand, on reverse, preserved from original panel, now lost: LORENZO DI Credi Pittore eccmo MCCCCLXXXVIII AETATIS SVE XXXII ME VIII (Lorenzo di Credi, most excellent painter, 1488, age 32 years, 8 months)

Provenance

Probably private collections, Florence, until at least the mid-eighteenth century. Possibly anonymous collection, Rome, before 1895.[1] William Beattie, Glasgow, Scotland, by 1901.[2] (Arthur J. Sulley & Co., London); sold 16 January 1911 to Peter A.B. Widener, Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania;[3] inheritance from Estate of Peter A.B. Widener by gift through power of appointment of Joseph E. Widener, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania; gift 1942 to NGA.

[1] A red wax customs seal still on the back of the panel reads "DIREZ DELLA R. DOGANA DI FIRENZE"; the "R." which stands for "Reale" ("Royal"), suggests that the painting was cleared for export under the Hapsburg-Lorraine regents. The possibility of a Roman provenance is mentioned in Widener curator Edith Standen's notes (in NGA curatorial files).

Though it was preserved and attached to the stretcher of the present canvas, the inscribed section of the panel unfortunately disappeared sometime after it was re-examined in connection with the Gallery's summary catalogue of 1965. To judge from a photograph made at that time, the inscription, partly in Roman capitals and partly in cursive script, does not appear to have been contemporary with the painting; it probably dated from the sixteenth century. Written over the inscription was the inventory number 6A.

[2] He lent the painting to a 1901 exhibition in London.

[3] According to Widener collection cards, in NGA curatorial files.

Associated Names

Anonymous Collector
Beattie, William
Private Collection (NGA Former Owner)
Sulley & Co., Arthur J.
Widener, Joseph E.
Widener, Peter Arrell Brown

Exhibition History

1901: Early Italian Portraits, Lawrie & Co., London, 1901.

1933: A Century of Progress Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Art Institute of Chicago, 1933, no. 114, as Self-Portrait by Lorenzo di Credi.

2011: Perugino - Raffaels Meister, Bayerisches Staatsgemäldesammlungen - Alte Pinakothek, Munich, 2011-2012, no. 25, repro.

2023: Il meglio maestro d’Italia: Perugino e il suo tempo, Galleria Nazionale dell’Umbria, Perugia, 2023, no. IV.1, repro.

Bibliography

1901: Armstrong, Walter. “Early Italian Portraits.” Art Journal 64 (1901): 47-48, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1901: Loeser, Charles. “L’autoritratto di Lorenzo di Credi. Atto di nascita dell’artista.” L’Arte 4 (1901): 135-137, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1905: Reinach, Salomon. Répertoire de peintures du moyen âge et de la Renaissance (1280-1580). 6 vols. Paris, 1905-1923: 4(1918):622, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1907: Gronau, Georg. "Lorenzo di Credi." In Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, eds. Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart. 37 vols. Leipzig, 1907-1950: 8(1913):73-74, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1909: Berenson, Bernard. The Florentine Painters of the Renaissance. 3rd ed. London, 1909: 132, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1916: Berenson, Bernard, and William Roberts. Pictures in the Collection of P.A.B. Widener at Lynnewood Hall, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania: Early Italian and Spanish Schools. Philadelphia, 1916: unpaginated, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Portrait of Himself in His Thirty-Third Year.

1923: Marle, Raimond van. The Development of the Italian Schools of Painting. 19 vols. The Hague, 1923-1938: 13(1931):269, 282-287, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1923: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1923: unpaginated, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Portrait of Himself in His Thirty-Third Year.

1924: Alazard, Jean. Le Portrait florentin de Botticelli à Bronzino. Paris, 1924: 84-85, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1931: Degenhart, Bernhard. “Studien über Lorenzo di Credi I: Credis Porträtsdarstellung.” Pantheon 4, no. 9 (1931): 364, fig. 6, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1931: Paintings in the Collection of Joseph Widener at Lynnewood Hall. Intro. by Wilhelm R. Valentiner. Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1931: 146, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Portrait of Himself in His Thirty-Third Year.

1931: Venturi, Lionello. Pitture italiane in America. Milan, 1931: pl. 213, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1932: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Oxford, 1932: 297, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1933: Frankfurter, Alfred M. "Art in the Century of Progress." The Fine Arts 20, no. 2 (June 1933): 11, 60, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1933: Venturi, Lionello. Italian Paintings in America. 3 vols. New York and Milan, 1933: 2:pl.281, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1935: Popham, Arthur Ewart. “Lorenzo di Credi. Head of a Youth.” In The Vasari Society 2nd ser., part 16, no. 2 (1935): 5, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1935: Tietze, Hans. Meisterwerke europäischer Malerei in Amerika. Vienna, 1935: 27, 327, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait. (English ed., Masterpieces of European Painting in America. New York, 1939: 57, 311, repro.).

1936: Berenson, Bernard. Pitture italiane del rinascimento. Milan, 1936: 255, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1937: Goldscheider, Ludwig, ed. Five hundred self-portraits from antique times to the present day, in sculpture, painting, drawing and engraving. Vienna, 1937: 22, fig. 38, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1938: Alazard, Jean. Le Portrait florentin de Botticelli à Bronzino. 2nd ed. Paris, 1938: 84-85, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1938: Waldmann, Emil. "Die Sammlung Widener." Pantheon 22 (November 1938): 340, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1939: Nicodemi, Giorgio. “Il volto di Leonardo.” In Sandro Piantanida and Costantino Baroni, eds. Leonardo da Vinci. Novara, 1939: 16, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1942: Douglas, Robert Langton. “Leonardo and His Critics-I.” The Burlington Magazine 81, no. 475 (October 1942): 241, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1942: Works of Art from the Widener Collection. Foreword by David Finley and John Walker. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1942: 5, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1948: Alazard, Jean. The Florentine Portrait from Botticelli to Bronzino. English ed. trans. Barbara Whelpton. London and Brussels, 1948: 82-83, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1948: Paintings and Sculpture from the Widener Collection. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1948 (reprinted 1959): 7, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1951: Einstein, Lewis. Looking at Italian Pictures in the National Gallery of Art. Washington, 1951: 44 n. 1, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1956: Laclotte, Michel. De Giotto à Bellini: les primitifs italiens dans les musées de France. Exh. cat. Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 1956: 64, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1957: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Comparisons in Art: A Companion to the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC. London, 1957 (reprinted 1959): pl. 77, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1963: Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance. Florentine School. 2 vols. London, 1963: 1:117, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 300, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 77, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1966: Covi, Dario. “Four new documents concerning Andrea del Verrocchio.” The Art Bulletin 48, n. 1 (March 1966): 99, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1966: Dalli Regoli, Gigetta. Lorenzo di Credi. Milan, 1966: 36, 40-41, 132-133, fig. 106, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1966: Prinz, Wolfram. “Vasaris Sammlung von Künstlerbildnissen.” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorichen Institutes von Florenz 12, supp. (1966): 119-120, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 68, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1970: Brewer, Robert. A Study of Lorenzo di Credi. Florence, 1970: 81, 124, 129-130, pl. 37, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1974: Berenson, Bernard. Looking at Pictures with Bernard Berenson. Ed. Hanna Kiel. New York, 1974: 204, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 200, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1977: Dalli Regoli, Gigetta. “Raffaello e Lorenzo di Credi. Postilla.” Critica d’Arte 42, nos. 154-156 (July-December 1977): 87, fig. 7, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1977: Ragghianti, Carlo L. “Lorenzo di Credi non Pinturicchio”. Critica d’Arte 42, nos. 154-156 (July – December 1977): 92, 94, 97, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1978: Sleptzoff, L. M. Men or Supermen? The Italian Portrait in the Fifteenth Century. Jerusalem, 1978: 139, fig. 49, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:272-273; 2:pl. 187, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1984: Dessins florentins et romains de la collection Frits Lugt. Exh. cat. Institut Néerlandais, Paris 1984: 9.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 104, no. 74, color repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1985: Boehm, Gottfried. Bildnis und Individuum. Über den Ursprung der Porträtmalerei in der italienischen Renaissance. Munich, 1985: 239, 287, fig. 164, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 233, repro., as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1987: Dalli Regoli, Gigetta. “‘Non…da natura, ma per lungo studio’: Riferimenti, citazioni e rielaborazioni nelle Madonne di Raffaello.” In Micaela Sambucco Hamoud and Maria Letizia Strocchi, eds. Studi su Raffaello. Atti del congresso internazionale. Urbino, 1987: 421 n. 13, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1989: Todini, Filippo. La pittura umbra dal Duecento al primo Cinquecento. 2 vols. Milan, 1989: 1:273. 2:pl.1154.

1993: Gagliardi, Jacques. La conquête de la peinture: L’Europe des ateliers du XIIIe au XVe siècle. Paris, 1993: 802-803, fig. 1009, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1996: Dalli Regoli, Gigetta. "Lorenzo di Credi." In Jane Turner, ed. The Dictionary of Art. 34 vols. New York and London, 1996: 19:676, as by Lorenzo di Credi, Self-Portrait.

1997: Garibaldi, Vittoria. Perugino. Florence, 1997: 24.

2001: Brown, David Alan,ed. Virtue and Beauty: Leonardo’s Ginevra de’ Benci and Renaissance Portraits of Women. Exh. cat., National Gallery of Art, Washington, 2001: 198, fig. 1.

2002: Quodbach, Esmée. "The Last of the American Versailles: The Widener Collection at Lynnewood Hall." Simiolus 29, no. 1/2 (2002): 95.

2003: Boskovits, Miklós, and David Alan Brown, et al. Italian Paintings of the Fifteenth Century. The Systematic Catalogue of the National Gallery of Art. Washington, D.C., 2003: 557-561, color repro.

2005: Todini, Filippo. “Il Perugino, le sue botteghe e i suoi seguaci: ‘Volendo fare di sua mano, lui è il meglio maestro d’Italia’.” In Rosanna Caterina Proto Pisani, ed. Perugino a Firenze: Qualità e fortuna d’uno stile. Exh. cat. Cenacolo di Fuligno, Florence, 2005: 58, fig. 7.

2011: Christiansen, Keith, and Stefan Wepplemann, eds. The Renaissance Portrait from Donatello to Bellini. Exh. cat. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2011: 140.