Italian school, follower of BERNARDINO CAMPI (Italy, 1522-1591); XVII century.

Italian school, follower of BERNARDINO CAMPI (Italy, 1522-1591); 17th century.
"Titus Flavius Vespasianus."
Oil on canvas. Relined.
It presents faults.
Measurements: 86 x 71 cm.
Bust portrait of the emperor Titus Flavius Vespasianus. In the piece the author has portrayed the personage of short bust on a neutral background that monumentalizes the figure and contributes a greater rotundity to the forms of the face. The emperor is inscribed in a border, creating a trompe l'oeil, usual in the epoch and in this type of portraits of illustrious men.
Stylistically the work follows the models of Bernadino Campi who was a Renaissance painter from Cremona, who worked in Reggio Emilia. He is known as one of the masters of Sofonisba Anguissola and Giovanni Battista Trotti (il Malosso). In Cremona, his extended family owned the main artistic studios. Giulio Campi and Antonio Campi, half-brothers, were distant relatives of Bernardino; the latter is generally considered the most talented of the family. All were active and locally prominent painters. Influences on Bernardino are likely to be diverse, including those from local Cremonese such as Camillo Boccaccino, to artists from neighboring regions such as Correggio, Parmigianino and Giulio Romano.He made several series of copies of the eleven Caesars by Titian, then in the Gonzaga collection, and added one of Domitian, which he based on a work by Giulio Romano. Titian's original was lost in an 18th-century fire in Madrid.Bernardino was commissioned by Vespasiano Gonzaga to lead a team of artists that included Pietro Martire Pesenti in the interior decoration, including Bernardino's frescoes, of the Palazzo del Giardino in Sabbioneta, near Mantua.Among his pupils were Giovanni Antonio Morandi (active in 1585), Andrea Mainardi and Pietro Martire Pesenti, both active in the Palazzo di Guastalla.