Of doubts about the attribution to the Nazi requisition. Until the most recent hypothesis: Is it a self-portrait? Portrait of a Man with Pen and Sheet of Paper by Agnolo di Cosimo – known as il Bronzino (1503-1572) – is back on the market after eighty years. It brings multiple stories and only one valuation, $3-5 million. The appointment at Sotheby’s on January 26th in New York in an auction where the work represents the pearl that lifts the curtain of the enchantments of 2023.
One of the most interesting discoveries of recent times
Sotheby’s, announcing the sale, announces the reattribution of this portrait to Bronzino. The famous authorship has long since been withdrawn from the canvas. While today all experts agree to grant it to him. In addition, the quality of the painting’s surface and some typical elements of the Florentine master seem to attest to the painter’s handwriting. For Carlo Falciani, the art historian responsible for the reattribution, this is one of the most interesting recent discoveries related to the famous Florentine artist Agnolo Bronzino. Its rediscovery not only brings to light one of the artist’s finest portraits, but also improves our understanding of his early activity. Even the possibility that it is a self-portrait is considered. It would be the only one known to the artist. In addition to the fine workmanship, the painting is also characterized by a long and eventful collecting history, especially in the 20th century.
Entanglement with Nazi crimes
Deception, extortion and atrocities intertwine the work with Nazi crimes that left a deep mark on an era and the Jewish community in particular. Among them Ilse Hesselberger, the first owner of this masterpiece. Ilse bought the factory in 1927. As the heiress to a large textile company, she was married to Franz Hesselberger, owner of a leather goods factory in Munich, who died in the mid-1930s. Of Protestant faith but of Jewish origin, Hesselberger was dramatically involved in the Nazi persecutions a few years later. The turning point of her existence came in 1938. Traveling to Italy with her daughter Trudy to visit some relatives, the woman decided to return to Germany, while her daughter decided to flee to the United States. A wise decision, because two months later the passports of all Jewish citizens were declared invalid by the federal government. Perhaps comforted by the high social position she enjoyed, the mother, as mentioned, made her way home instead. Just in time to witness Adolf Hitler’s final accession to power, who had found the hard core of his approval in Munich. It was October. In December, the Nazi authorities further intensified the persecution of the Jewish community. Every Jewish citizen was forced to give up real estate, commercial activities and other valuable assets. And finally, to finance his own death. Ilse Hesselberger herself was summoned to a Nazi office in 1941. The dramatic and paradoxical request was for a monetary donation, which the woman only later learned was intended for the construction of the Milbertshofen concentration camp in Lithuania. Exactly where he would have died on November 25 of the same year. But at the time, Hesselberger allowed himself to be persuaded by the promises of pardon from the Nazis, who promised her freedom in exchange for a payment that was allegedly forced anyway.
German owned
So Hesselberger paid for her death. And as part of this tragic compromise, Bronzino’s painting was also acquired by the Reich Chancellery. It is thanks to the intervention of Gerdy Troost, known as Hitler’s favorite interior designer. Who then sent the work to the Führermuseum in Linz, a museum the Führer designed for his hometown in Austria but never built. Somehow, however, the painting got there because it was found by the American army in an Austrian salt mine at the end of the war. Handed over to German authorities, the painting spent the following decades in the hands of the Federal Republic of Germany. For a time it hung on the walls of a federal office in Bonn, but in 2022 it was moved to a similar building in Berlin. here that David J. Rowland, a New York attorney specializing in the recovery of artworks looted by the Nazis, tracked down the work and initiated proceedings for its return to the Hesselberger family heirs. After verifying the reliability of the reconstruction, the German government returned the Portrait of a Man with a Quill Pen and Sheet of Paper to its rightful owners. He brought the painting to Sotheby’s a few weeks later.
Sotheby’s attention
The work is brought to the attention of the auction house as a painting by the Italian artist Jacopino del Conte in less than optimal condition. His experts immediately mobilized to remove the layer of dirt and restore the painting. Process that brought to light the pictorial surfaces of the work, created with an excellent technique. Against a green background, perhaps a tapestry, stands out the figure of a man in a dark suit. He wears a hat tilted slightly to one side. The gaze seems vaguely absorbed, as if lost in mysterious thoughts. But which? In one hand he gently holds the pen while with the other he points with a finger what he just wrote on the paper. A perfect example of early Mannerism, perhaps too well done to be the work of a mere imitator. We immediately suspected that we were dealing with something far more important, said Elizabeth Lobkowicz, Old Masters Specialist at Sotheby’s New York.
The picture thinks, it writes, but it doesn’t really write
Sotheby’s therefore turned to numerous experts, including Carlo Falciani, professor of art history at the Academy of Fine Arts in Florence. According to him, the hand is that of a Renaissance master. In particular, the clear light and the stereometric shape of the figure in space are exactly those of Bronzino. The hypothesis was later confirmed by analysis by other experts, including Elizabeth Pilliod, an art historian at Rutgers University-Camden. According to them, the portrait was painted in 1527 by a young Bronzino under the influence of his master Pontormo. This guilt is particularly found in elements such as the neutral background, the egg-shaped and luminous face, the luminous eyes, and the half-turned pose facing the viewer. Also intriguing is the hypothesis that the work is the only self-portrait painted by Bronzino. In this sense, Falciani carries out further investigations. For now, the possibility seems supported by the intriguing riddle in Latin that appears on the sheet the character is holding. The first line reads: “The picture thinks, it writes, but in reality it does not write”. It is precisely this dual interest in words and images, which is typical of Bronzino, which, as Falciani claims, gives a further indication of the authorship of the work. Only one other painting fully attributed to him was recently offered at auction: Portrait of a Young Man with a Book, which fetched over $9 million at Christie’s in New York in 2015. A record at the moment. In addition, according to Artprice, only 18 works attributed to Bronzino were auctioned. Two characters that this masterpiece has now auctioned off want to be rewritten.
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