Giovan Battista Moroni’s portraits of the Count and Countess Spini have always been together as companion pieces and judged as the most important Counter Reformation portraits of the artist’s maturity for their psychological subtlety and astute characterisation of provincial Lombard nobility.[1] The portraits were much treasured and remained in the family until 1852 when the Accademia Carrara bought them from the last Spini heirs—the acquisition arranged by Count Guglielmo Lochis.

The Spini was the principal patrician family at Albino, Moroni’s birthplace, a small town located seven miles north of Bergamo in the Seriana Valley. They were his earliest and most constant patrons, beginning with a commission to the young Moroni from Marcantonio Spini in 1547 for frescoes of Chinese subjects and landscapes for his palace at Albino, as well as religious works for the church of San Giuliano—none of which survive.[2] Marcantonio’s son Bernardo continued the tradition. From 1567 to 1573, the possible date of this portrait, the artist and sitter were in frequent contact concerning the commission of frescoes for the confraternity of the Misericordia at Albino.

Bernardo Spini spent much of his life in the family’s textile business and was involved in local politics and social activities. Presumably the two portraits hung in the family palace, and the backgrounds with the abbreviated indications of architecture, the grand half column and the horizontal lines of the mouldings may reflect the original location.

The silhouetted figure of the Count, his dramatic pose, dressed in black against a grey background, is predictive of  Velázquez;[3] while the full-length figure format is adapted from Titian,[4] who had invented the motif for the portrayal of emperors. As the Spini family had made a fortune from the manufacture and dying of cloth, it is in some ways predictable that Bernardo is dressed in the most luxurious clothes, subtle shades of blacks, in part embroidered, with exquisite ‘Spanish’ white ruffs at his neck and wrists. His face is ruddy and his beard and moustache reddish. He holds a folded letter, perhaps indicative of his business interests; or intended for the signature of the artist. The inscription is illegible, so we can only guess.

In his Will made on 27 August 1612 Bernardo Spini acknowledges three sons who were born out of wedlock. With his wife Pace Rivola Spini there was one son, Giovanni.[5] The Will makes many pious donations, as if in penance for the libertarian manner in which Bernardo led his life. Moroni’s characterisation of his friend shows an exceptionally lively face set against the severe formality and elegance of his clothing. The inscription in gold on the painting, made after his death, ‘BERNARDVS SPINVS/OBYT AN MDCXII/ETATIS LXXVI’, reveals that his lifestyle was conducive to longevity: he died in 1612 at the age of seventy-six.

Pace Rivola Spini, daughter of Giovanni Rivola, was betrothed to Count Bernardo Spini on 16 November 1568 and brought with her the considerable dowry of 2,000 scudi.[6] Their portraits were probably made in commemoration of the marriage, celebrated in the first months of 1569. The chic details of their costume, such as the ‘Spanish’ fashion of wearing this type of ruched collar, worn open by the Countess, and the shape of Bernardo’s cap, only became fashionable after 1570, hence recent opinion dates the companion portraits to about 1573.

The exhibition history of the portrait of the Countess,whose first name signifies ‘Peace’, reveals that she was more of a favourite than her husband, for her portrait was requested more often than his for later exhibitions in Paris, London and elsewhere.[7] The preference for her began in the nineteenth century when portraits by Moroni were ardently sought for the developing collection of the National Gallery in London. The Gallery’s agent, Otto Mündler, friend and mentor to Giovanni Morelli, noted:

two Portraits, a gentleman & a Lady, companions, whole length. Very fine & would be still more so, if the man were
not in a somewhat awkward twisted position.[8]

Pace Rivola Spini has always been perceived as a more intriguing character than her husband, Bernardo. Her face is that of a country girl seen struggling with the uncomfortable luxury of her clothes—although she has a slightly rebellious expression. She carries a flamboyant fan of black feathers as if unsure where to place it. Her dress is severe, heavy and somberly beautiful, sewn in red silk with heavy golden panels down the centre and at the hem. Her hair is bound with matching red silk ribbons in a coquettish style that appears fashionable. At her waist is a frivolous white bow. The shape of the front of her dress might suggest pregnancy. One very luxurious silver shoe is visible beneath the hem of her gown.

The inscription that was added to the portrait after the Countess died, in gold high to her left, ‘PAX RIVOLA SPINVS/obyt AN 1613 ETATIS 72’, records that she died at the age of seventy-two in 1613, having enjoyed remarkable longevity for a woman born in the mid sixteenth century. She was slightly younger than her husband and died a month later, an exemplary wife.

The tone of both portraits, often described by contemporaries as ‘silvery’, is the severe Counter Reformation style that Moroni invented. The artist’s early commissions were at the time of the first meeting of the Council of Trent,[9] and their prescriptions to make imagery more comprehensible or realistic to the public were an inherent part of Moroni’s conceptual ability all his life, whether in portraiture or sacred painting.

Jaynie Anderson

[1] Mina Gregori, Giovanni Battista Moroni. Tutte le opere, Bergamo: Poligrafiche Bolis, 1973, p. 227.

[2] Giampiero Tiraboschi, ‘Ritratti albinesi’, in Simone Faccinetti (ed.),
Giovan Battista Moroni lo sguardo sulla realtà 1560–1579, Milan:
Silvana Editoriale, 2004, pp. 300–01.

[3] Diego Velázquez (1599–1660).

[4] Titian (1488/1490–1576).

[5] Tiraboschi, p. 301.

[6] Tiraboschi, pp. 300–01.

[7] Gregori, p. 227.

[8] C.T. Dowd (ed.), Introduction by Jaynie Anderson, ‘The travel diaries
of Otto Mündler 1855–1858’, The Walpole Society, vol. 51, 1985, p. 182.

[9] The Council of Trent met between 1545 and 1563.