Portrait of Christina of Denmark
Jacopo Tintoretto, 1556
This portrait of Christina of Denmark is an oil on canvas that is attributed to the Venetian painter Jacopo Tintoretto. It is generally dated to around 1555–1556, during the high Italian Renaissance, and today it hangs in the National Museum of Serbia in Belgrade. The painting has an unusual history: for a time it was thought to be by Titian, a reminder of how difficult it can be to pin down authorship among Venetian portraits of the period. By 1556 it already belonged to the collection of Mary of Hungary, regent of the Habsburg Netherlands and sister of Emperor Charles V, which suggests the work circulated within the imperial family's sphere. Before the Second World War it passed into the Contini Bonacossi Collection, a group of European old master works assembled by that family.
Christina of Denmark came from the Danish royal house and was closely connected to the Habsburgs, and the portrait conveys the composure and dignity expected of a woman of her rank. Tintoretto works with warm colour and strong contrasts of light and shadow that model the face and the fabric, while the restrained background keeps the eye on the sitter. The attribution and date should be read as probable rather than certain, given the uncertainties in the painting's past. Even so, the canvas is valuable as evidence of how Venetian painting of the sixteenth century shaped the image of European aristocracy, pairing psychological observation with a calm, measured elegance.
- Painter
- Jacopo Tintoretto
- Date
- 1556
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 110 × 83 cm
- Museum
- National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade
- Movement
- Venetian school
- Genre
- portrait
- Depicts
- Christina of Denmark
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