The Cleveland Museum of Art houses the painting Portrait of a Man, made in Italy around the year 1620 by Tanzio da Varallo.
I have already posted my hypothesis that, Portrait of a Gentleman with a Sword, by Tanzio Da Varallo c.1615 showcases famous rapier master Nicoletto Giganti.
The painting showcased here, Portrait of a Man (c.1615), shows a certain similarity with Portrait of a Gentleman with a Sword (c.1620), the eyes in particular. Could they be the same person? And could they be Nicoletto Giganti? First, don’t be fooled by the estimated years. These two painting could be further apart than just five years. And at the right age, some seven or ten years would justify a loss of hair, and an older look. But let’s look at what the museum tells us about the Portrait of a Man painting, the author, and the focus on the rapier.
On the painting and rapier:
This portrait of an unknown man includes a detailed representation of a rapier, a sword worn with civilian dress and used in duels. On the basis of style, the rapier in this painting belonged to a distinctive group of sword hilts decorated between about 1570 and 1600. It was probably made in northern Italy.
Dashing accessories enliven this portrait, including a rapier with an elegantly spiraling guard, produced exclusively in North Italy between 1570 and 1600.
On the author:
The son of a Piedmontese architect, Tanzio spent most of his life in northern Italy, but worked briefly in Rome and southern Italy, mainly Naples. These trips brought him under the influence of Caravaggio, whose dramatic realism Tanzio integrated into his own elegant, decorative style.
What else do we know about Tanzio Da Varallo that would tie him spatially and temporally to Nicoletto Giganti? We know that Tanzio Da Varallo was active mainly in Piedmont and Lombardy (note: a region located next to the Veneto region and the city of Venice). At the same time, on the title page of his 1606 work, we read “Nicoletto Giganti of Venice” (note: this was due to his family moving from central Italy to Venice).
Considering that both Tanzio Da Varallo and Nicoletto Giganti both lived around the 1600 in the North of Italy, that the rapiers in the paintings are seen as being made in North Italy between 1570 and 1600, that both paintings show the same simple composition of an unknown person with a focus on the rapier, that they were made during a timeframe that would allow the two to meet, there is a realistic possibility that either one or both of the men in these paintings are Nicoletto Giganti.
And if my speculation is wrong, I still thank Tanzio Da Varallo for the detailed depiction of the two rapiers in his paintings, depictions that allowed us to understand just a bit better the style of swords preferred at those times.