Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati

The Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati is a painting by the early Netherlandish painter Jan van Eyck, dating to around 1431 and now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum of Vienna, Austria.

Portrait of Cardinal Niccolò Albergati.
Artist	Jan van Eyck
Year	c. 1431
Medium	Oil on canvas
Subject	Possibly Niccolò Albergati or Henry Beaufort
Dimensions	34 cm × 27.5 cm (13 in × 10.8 in)
Location	Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna

The preparatory drawing, Study for Cardinal Niccolò Albergati

The work shows an elderly cleric who is visibly ageing with deep lines below his eyes. He is shown in near full-frontal profile, dressed in the red robe of a cardinal, lined with luxurious fur.

Description

The cardinal is portrayed from three-quarters, as was usual in Flemish painting since as early as the 1430s. The dark background enhances the figure, who is lit by a bright light source. As is common in van Eyck's work, there is very close attention to detail, aided by his use of successive layers of colours diluted with oil, which allowed him to achieve deep effects of transparency and lucidity.^[1]

A preparatory drawing is now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen of Dresden, Germany.^[2] Comparison with the drawing shows that van Eyck changed several details, such as the depth of the shoulders, the lower curve of the nose, the depth of the mouth and mainly the size of the ear.^{[citation needed]}

Identity of the sitter

Niccolò Albergati was a diplomat working under Pope Martin V. He met van Eyck during a peace congress in Antwerp, who portrayed him in a drawing, which the artist added notes on the colors to execute a later painting portrait. The drawing is now in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen of Dresden, Germany.

Although Albergati is traditionally identified as the sitter, some modern scholars suggest that Henry Beaufort is more likely to be its subject.^[3][4] If the portrait is of Henry Beaufort, it would be the earliest realistic portrait of an Englishman.^[4] Other scholars maintain it does not depict a cardinal at all.^[5]