Lot 268: Paris Bordone (Treviso 1500-1571 Venice)

Paris Bordone (Treviso 1500-1571 Venice)
An Allegory of Faith
inscribed 'P. BERNARDI DE GASTALDIS ANN. XLIIII MENSES-X AGENTIS ANNO DNI M. D. LIIIII NONO -NOVENBRE (on the plinth, lower left)
oil on canvas
26¼ x 21 5/8 in. (66.5 x 55 cm.)

Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, Monte Carlo, 17 June 1988, lot 829, as 'Girolamo da Carpi'.

THIS LOT IS SOLD WITHOUT RESERVE

The present work is a new addition to the corpus of Paris Bordone. The painting served as an ex voto commemorating a noble priest, Bernardo dei Gastaldi, who was forty-four years and ten months old on November 9, 1555. Gastaldi's coat of arms is suspended from the broken column, a common metaphor in funerary symbolism for the extinction of an aristocratic line. Gastaldi's profession is furthermore suggested by the allegorical female figure emblematic of Faith, who responds to a call from Heaven. The palm signifies Christian victory over death, presumably a reference to Gastaldi's own death.