Lot 107: Portrait of Archduke Ernst of Austria, three-quarter length, in armor

Martino Rota Dalmatia 1520-1583 Vienna
Portrait of Archduke Ernst of Austria, three-quarter length, in armor
oil on canvas
43 5/8 x 35 7/8 in. 110.8 x 91.1 cm.

New York, Hispanic Society of America.

Property of the Hispanic Society of America, deaccessioned by order of the trustees to benefit the acquisitions fund

No sales tax is due on the purchase price of this lot if it is picked up or delivered in the State of New York.
This painting, long thought to be a portrait of Rudolf II by Alonso Sánchez Coello, was identified as a portrait of Rudolf's younger brother Ernst (1553-1595) in the early 1960s (G. Heinz, 'Studien zür Porträtmalerei,' p. 114). It was one of three portraits of the sons of Maximilian II painted by Martino Rota in Vienna around 1580. The portrait of Maximilian III (1558-1618) is now in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum) and the portrait of Rudolf II (1552-1612) is thought to be lost. DaCosta Kaufmann has described Portrait of Archduke Ernst as one of Rota's finest works and it certainly displays both the artist's talent for portraiture and his facility with the elements that make up court imagery (T. DaCosta Kauffman, op. cit. , Chicago, 1988, p. 29). Indeed, Rota's training as a printmaker can be seen in his schematic treatment of fabrics and his focus on the engraved portions of Ernst's armor. The dating of the portrait to around 1580 on stylistic grounds is supported by the fact that Ernst was made regent of Inner Austria during that year and a portrait of this type would have been appropriate to commemorate his appointment. Three bust length portraits of Rudolf II, Ernst, and Maximilian III by Rota, all in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, are thought to be reduced versions of his three-quarter-length portraits.

Archduke Ernst was the second son of Maximilian II. Together with his brother, Rudolf II, he was educated at the court of his uncle Philip II in Spain. After an unsuccessful bid for the Polish crown he was made Regent of Lower Austria in 1576, Governor of Inner Austria in 1580, and Governor of the Spanish Netherlands in 1593, a post he held for only two years before he died in February 1595. While Rota served Rudolf II in Vienna, Ernst's court painters in the Netherlands included Hendrik de Clerck, Tobias Verhaecht, and Otto van Veen, whose name appears in archducal accounts recording payments for several portraits. In van Veen's portrait of Ernst, known only through a print by Gisbert van Veen (the artist's younger brother), Ernst appears as a resolute military commander wearing the order of the Golden Fleece and surrounded by imagery trumpeting his military successes in Hungary. Other images of Ernst include portrait medals by Antonio Abondio and Conrad Bloc, his tomb effigy in Brussels, and a miniature in an English private collection (see A. van de Put, 'Otto Vaenius and Archduke Ernest,' The Burlington Magazine , vol. 37/no. 211, October 1920, p. 189, fig. A). Ernst was also a collector of art and in 1594 the citizens of Antwerp presented him with the famous series of the seasons by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, three of which are now in Vienna, one in New York and one in Prague. He owned at least two other paintings by Bruegel, a Conversion of St. Paul and a Peasant Wedding , both dated 1567 and both now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Martino Rota was born around 1520 in Sebenico in Dalmatia. He studied in Venice, Florence and Rome where he worked primarily as a printmaker. He is known as one of the last disciples of Marcantonio Raimondi, reproducing the works of Titian, Raphael and Michelangelo in etchings and engravings. He settled in Venice in 1558 making reproductive prints for Titian and producing copies of such famous print series as Dürer's Little Passion . His printed oeuvre consists of around 120 works, half of which are portraits. Rota left for Vienna in 1568 where he served Maximilian II as Imperial Counterfetter maler and bildhauer. After Maximilian II's death in 1576, Rota served Rudolf II, receiving a salary from the emperor through May 1582. He died before September 1583.