3

Point of View

Every portrait evokes the absence of the depicted person, while the expressive
power of his or her features reminds us of the sitter. This is the dual nature of
portraiture that explains why in the Renaissance a portrait was appreciated as
much as – and sometimes even more than – the real person it depicted.
Produced around 1585, this portrait of the Venetian Bianca Cappello is an especially
 well documented example of that. Following its completion, the painting
was venerated and idolised, treatment normally reserved for saints or rulers –
but their frequently fictitious portraits make no claim to be truthful. Here, however,
 Bianca’s face and dress are rendered with such verisimilitude that the depiction
 seems to oscillate between idealisation and perfect truth. In addition,
some of the details function as references to the lady’s turbulent, even adventurous
 history.
Francesca Del Torre Scheuch, a curator of the Collection of Paintings, uncovered
 the work’s secrets and put together this exhibition, supported by the scholarly
 contributions of Katja Schmitz-von Ledebur, curator of the Imperial Treasury,
 and two of the KHM’s conservators, Ingrid Hopfner and Elke Oberthaler.
Last but not least, this publication may also serve as an invitation to learn more
about a great painter: Scipione Pulzone – one of the period’s most celebrated
portrait painters active in Rome, Naples and Florence.

This is the twelfth show in our series “Points of View”, and I would especially like
to thank Francesca Del Torre Scheuch and her co-authors. I am also most grateful
 to the colleagues at the Kunsthistorisches Museum in charge of graphics,
layout, proof reading and the English translation, and to Guido Messling, a curator
 of the Collection of Paintings, who looks after our “Points of View”.
I feel it is important to continue this beautiful series and its engaged and challenging
 discourse with our visitors.

Stefan Weppelmann
Director of the Collection of Paintings