Italian Greyhound on a Red Cushion
This charming painting by the Florentine painter Cesare Dandini depicts an Italian greyhound perched upon a sumptuous red velvet cushion, which is ornamented with gold lace and tassels. The dog appears alert, its ears perked and eyes fixed on a point in the distance, as if preparing to jump to attention and address an order or incoming intruder. Set against a grey background, the dog’s dark fur coupled with the vibrant red cushion contribute to the vivacity of this painting, and Dandini’s meticulous depiction of the dog makes it seem as if this may even be a portrait. Indeed, the dog’s ornate collar is adorned with the initials ‘SS’, likely referring to the name or family of its owner.
Born in Florence in 1596, Cesare Dandini studied under Francesco Curradi before joining the workshops of Christofano Allori and Passignano, then likely spent time in Rome before returning to his native Florence. He was perhaps best known as a figure painter, depicting tragic heroes and heroines within mythological, sacred, and profane sceneries. Dandini notably included a variety of animals within these compositions—cats, lambs, horses, lions, and deer all appear alongside saints and allegorical figures. Dogs feature in several of Dandini’s paintings, notably in the Assumption of the Virgin with Saints Jacopo and Rocco at the Santissma Annunziata in Florence, Sant’Angonio Pierozzi and the Miracle of the Pears in a private collection, and the Allegory of Comedy in Painting now in London. A greyhound is also features in Dandini’s Diana the Huntress now in a private collection (fig. 1). In addition to the animals that populate Dandini’s figural paintings, archival documentation identified by Sandro Bellisi describes ‘quattro aovati in Telavi diversi uccellami’ (four paintings on canvas with various birds) commissioned by Don Lorenzo de’ Medici now lost or untraced. Another avian painting, Still Life with Two Shelducks, now in a private collection, has also recently been attributed to Dandini (fig. 2).
Dandini’s authorship of the present painting is reaffirmed by the reappearance of the resplendent red cushion in two works by the artist, Portrait of a Young Man with a Cushion (fig. 3), and even more so in a similar composition now in a private collection (see Bellisi, Cesare Dandini, 1996, no. 23). The white fur tufted around the dog’s chest is reminiscent of the plumage found in Still Life with Two Shelducks, and the neutral grey background of the canvas is identical to the Allegory of Virtue as noted by Prof. Francesca Baldassari. These features, coupled with Dandini’s use of rich colors and the naturalistic definition of the greyhound, attest to the painting’s attribution.
As a symbol of loyalty and fidelity, dogs appeared frequently in works commissioned in seventeenth-century Florence. They were portrayed sitting at the feet and knees of patrons and allegorical figures alike, and sometimes were portrayed in the company of children. This is exemplified in Justus Susterman’s Portrait of Francesco de’ Medici (1614–1634) at the Uffizi (fig. 4), in which the young son of Cosimo II de’ Medici is portrayed with his hand resting on the head of a dog that sits regally at his side. Dogs appeared in paintings associated with poetry, as in Lorenzo Lippi’s Angelo Marzi Medici in the Guise of Silvio in the company of the dog Melampo in a Florentine private collection, where a young Tuscan patrician is portrayed as a protagonist of Giovanni Battista Guarini’s Il Pastor Fido alongside a labrador.
Dated by Bellisi and Baldessari to the golden age of Dandini’s career, this painting is an engaging addition to the oeuvre of dog paintings executed in Florence during the seventeenth century. It recalls works by Sustermans, Dandini’s contemporary, who created many interesting works depicting the dogs owned by members of the Florentine grand-ducal court. Although there is no historical documentation recalling the name of the original patron, Dandini’s exquisitely detailed rendition of the greyhound on his regal perch places it in conversation with Sustermans’s dog portraits of this era. This, alongside the inscribed collar, attests to the theory that this painting was possibly commissioned for a wealthy Florentine patron looking to immortalize their four-legged companion.