Venetian school; 17th century.

Venetian school; c. 1600.
"Portrait of Marco Molino procurator of San Marco".
Oil on canvas.
It presents faults, damages caused by xylophages and restorations in the frame.
Measurements: 121 x 96 cm; 136 x 112 cm (frame).
Male portrait where the protagonist is standing in front of the viewer, turned slightly in three quarters as usual in the official portraits, as this gesture gives a certain three-dimensionality to the piece. The sitter is wearing the clothes of a Venetian procurator, a wine-colored velvet toga of great amplitude with ermine trim on the sleeves and the outside of the lapel. The protagonist holds a glove in one of his hands, indicating his high social status and noble personality. On the left side of the image there is an inscription where the artist presents the protagonist "Marco Molino" and his position, Procurator of San Marco, the most prestigious position for life in the Republic of Venice after the Doge. The council was made up of nine procurators, who were in charge of the administration of the various districts of the city. Both the subject matter and the composition of this work bring us close to the painting made by Tintoretto (Venice, 1518-1594) around 1580. In this work, which is in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum, the protagonist is Marco Grimani, who presents the same clothes and disposition as the protagonist of our work. Tintoretto, made several works starring procurators such as the Portrait of Jacopo Soranzo, 1550, located in the collection of the Accademia Gallery in Venice and the Portrait of the procurator Alessandro Gritti 1581-1582 in the Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya.
The vigorous brushstroke and color of the work indicate that it is a piece of the Venetian school. Considered as a school that gave primacy to color over line, the tradition of that school in contrast to the Mannerism prevalent in the rest of Italy. The Venetian style exerted a great influence on the later development of Western painting. Portraiture was one of the school's favorite genres. It came to develop aesthetic and formal patterns that started from the Bellini and Pisanello type profile following the three-quarter profile pose of Antonello and the frontality of the splendor period, which begins with the devotion to the beauty of Giorgione and Vincenzo Catena. It was later Titian who, starting from the aforementioned characteristics, established a consolidated model of the court portrait. It is worth mentioning that during the seventeenth century copies of royal portraits were frequent, commissioned to be placed in the palaces of aristocrats and important prelates.