Portrait of a Man Wearing the Order of the Annunziata of Savoy
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
14 1/4 x 11 in. (36.2 x 27.9 cm)
Classification
Paintings
Department
European Paintings
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Accession Number
32.100.116
Tags
Art Historical Context
This intimate portrait depicts a distinguished man adorned with the Collar of the Order of the Annunziata of Savoy, the highest chivalric honor of the House of Savoy, conferred on elite nobility and military leaders in the Kingdom of Sardinia and later unified Italy. The subject's formal attire and proud bearing reflect the grandeur of 18th- or 19th-century European aristocracy, capturing a moment of personal prestige amid shifting political landscapes, from Savoyard courts to Napoleonic influences. Painted by an anonymous French artist in oil on wood—a medium favored for its smooth surface a...
About the Artist
French Painter
"French Painter" is a scholarly attribution designation used by art historians and museum curators to catalogue paintings produced in France — or by artists trained in the French tradition — when the specific creator cannot be identified with confidence. Rather than leave a work without provenance context or assign it speculatively to a named artist, curators apply this designation alongside an ap...