Portrait of a Man (Selfportrait)

The small portrait of a bust, very different from a magnificent representative likeness, charms with its seductive atmosphere based on the principle of light and a tenebrous technique. It is liberated from descriptive detail, and emphasizes the actual face. This portrait of an unknown man was for a long time thought to be the only original work of Ján Kupecký in Slovak museum and gallery collections. The painting, later signed and dated with the year 1709, was on the basis of comparisons considered to be the painter’s self-portrait from around 1700. In the artist’s recent monograph, Eduard Šafařík suggests that the work is an early self-portrait by the substantially younger Franz Anton Palko. Text: Katarína Chmelinová Literature: 111 diel zo zbierok. Slovenská národná galéria. Bratislava : SNG, Vyd. Slovart, 2008. 277 s. ISBN 9788080856014(viaz.), 107-108. Buran, D. - Chmelinová, K.: Nestrex, SNG Bratislava 2014, s. 27 Buran, D. - Chmelinová, K.: Nestrex, SNG Bratislava 2015, s. 33 Safarik, E. Kunstler aus dem Umkreis von Johann Kupezky. Brno 2014, s. 35, Pa1