1600–1700

This is one of a series of similar paintings, all of which are imaginary portraits of army leaders and military commanders, members of an important Venetian family from centuries much earlier than the time in which they were painted. Such paintings often decorated the palaces or castles of the families which commissioned them, but we do not, as yet, know exactly where these paintings were located. The figures were usually identified by inscriptions at the side, which gave their names, dates of birth and death, and details of their heroic deeds. Four paintings from this series have survived: this one and Cat. No. 25, a painting in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin (202 x 140 cm, Cat. No. 1925) and an Imaginary Portrait of Count Alpharis in the Musée de Corte on Corsica (202 x 144 cm). The pictures in Dublin and on Corsica came from the collection of Napoleon’s uncle Cardinal Fesch. A similar, fifth, painting was in the Palazzo Conti in Padua in 1785, but today it has been lost or destroyed. The painting in Dublin, which was not trimmed at the edges, has a long inscription. This tells us that the commander portrayed was a member of the Conti di Baone family and that he had a castle near Padua in 1174; it is probable that the other paintings of the series also depict members of this family. On our painting there are traces of an inscription on the left edge: ...Comitibvs / ... Filivs / ... Athilam / …issvs / ...Praefectus / ...Avxilio venit / ...Pro fide / ...icans / CCLII. These fragments do not permit us to decipher the whole inscription, which may have contained an allusion to Attila. We cannot determine the identity of the person – he is holding a commander’s baton and his armour is pure fantasy. The style of this and the other three paintings is characteristic of Andrea Celesti; the painting should probably be dated to around the year 1690.

Restored: 1981, Kemal Selmanović.
Provenance: Collection of the Attems family; Slovenska Bistrica, up to 1945, when the painting was in the castle office of Dr. Ferdinand Attems; FCC, 1945 (FCC Register, p. 208, Nos. 6439 and 6440); transferred to ALU for its envisaged gallery, 1951; on loan to the SAZU to furnish its rooms.
Exhibitions: 1960, Ljubljana, Nos. 17 and 18; 1983, Ljubljana, Nos. 21 and 22.
Lit.: Cevc 1960, p. 20, Cat. Nos. 17 and 18 (Sante Peranda (?)); Rizzi 1970, pp. 233–234, Fig. on p. 233; Rizzi 1972, p. 133, Cat. Nos. 17 and 18; Wynne 1979, pp. 654–655; Potterton 1979, p. 139; Pallucchini, I, 1981, p. 272; Zeri [& Rozman] 1983, pp. 114–115, Cat. Nos. 21 and 22, Fig. 20 and 21; Brejon de Lavergné and Volle 1986, p. 100.
(Painting is for the time being no longer exhibited.) On the left edge the inscription: ...Comitibvs / ... Filivs / ... Athilam / …issvs / …Praefectus / …Avxilio venit / … Pro fide / ... icans / CCLII.