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HARALD JURKOVIC - The Portrait with the Fly 
Belvedere 1/2004 
Christian faith; in Gossaert's "Portrait of Jean Carondelet" 
(fig. 6), on the one hand, the two other panels of the origi 
nal triptych, depicting a Madonna with Child and Saint 
Donatian 36 , supply the appropriate religious context. 
An especially refined strategy of pictorial argumentation is 
shown, in this respect, in the "Portrait of Giovanni di Paolo 
Rucellai" recently attributed to Francesco Salviati (1510- 
1563, fig. 13). The Florentine banker sits in front of a win- 
dow-like opening in a wall, which shows an architectural 
vista in which all the buildings designed by Leon Battista 
Alberti for the Rucellai are depicted side by side in the man- 
ner of a Capriccio. The significance of this fictitious assembly 
goes beyond paying tribute to the role played by Rucellai's 
as a patron of Renaissance architecture, however, and only 
becomes apparent when one notices that the secular buil 
dings (palazzo and loggia) are behind him, while he turns to 
face his religious foundations (Santa Maria Novella, Tempi- 
etto in San Pancrazio). The lighting also corresponds to this: 
the left-hand side is largely in the shade and seems darker, 
all in all; on the right-hand side, by contrast, the light is at 
its brightest in the little Tempietto, which is a reproduction of 
the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and can thus be interpreted 
as an altogether prototypical reference to the Resurrection. 
Directly related to this is the fly, whose position, on one si 
de of the book lying open on the table, is by no means ar- 
bitrarily chosen: it is exactly below the lantern on the Tempi 
etto, and can be connected by a vertical line to the cross 
which surmounts it. The insect, as a Symbol of death, is thus 
quite clearly related to the motif within the picture which 
serves symbolically to indicate the overcoming of death and 
the hope of eternal life. This disposition of elements only ac- 
quires its deeper meaning, however, from the fact that that 
this is a memorial portrait, painted about half a Century af- 
ter the death of its subject in 1481. The subject’s clear Orien 
tation towards the hereafter and the prominence given to 
the merits he acquired for the salvation of his soul through 
his patronage of the Church should therefore be related, not 
east, to the fact that he was no longer among the living at 
the time when the picture was painted. 
In view of this fact, the question arises as to whether in cer- 
tain cases additional significance does not attach to the fly, 
in the sense of being a sign that the portrait is a posthumous 
one. While the "Portrait of Giovanni Rucellai" is the only 
work for which this can be demonstrated with certainty, on 
the basis of data which are well-established and on the sty- 
listic features identified, in some other instances there are at 
least Strang indications suggesting a procedure of this kind. 
The "Portrait of Margarethe von Kerpen nee vam Houltz" 
(fig. 14) by Bartholomäus Bruyn the Eider is dated, on the 
basis of instances chosen for comparison, to the "end of the 
thirties". 37 On the other hand it is known that the subject, on 
whose bonnet the life-size insect has settled, died before 
1538, which means that the date of hr death and the period 
in which the painting was created, are most probably close 
to one another and that the possibility of the portrait ha- 
ving been painted posthumously (based on an earlier mo- 
del) can by no means be ruled out. 
But another aspect needs to be considered: the possibility 
that the fly could have been painted onto an existing picture 
on the death of the subject. A hypothesis of this kind has 
been advanced, with good reason, with regard to Sebastiano 
del Piombo's (around 1485-1547) "Portrait of Cardinal Ban- 
dinello Sauli with three companions" (fig. 15), 38 where the 
insect sits, in an altogether illusionistic manner, on the main 
figure's white alb. Since the group portrait is dated 1516, 
but the Cardinal had departed this life by March 1518, an 
assumption of this kind suggests itself, especially if one ta- 
kes into account the visionary content the representation, in 
which Sauli appears as "Pastor Angelicus" within the mea 
ning of the prophecies of Joachim del Fiore, i.e. as a longed- 
for, holy Pope who was expected to usher in a new ‘Golden 
Age'. 
If, taking these considerations as a basis, we now look again 
at the "Portrait of the Archduke Sigmund" (fig. 1), then it 
becomes apparent that it shares an important characteristic 
with the two examples just mentioned: the fly seems to 
have settled on the subject's clothes, and thus - at least op- 
tically - enters into direct contact with him. A close relation 
of this kind between body and insect was, however, as we 
have seen, characteristic of those pictures in which the in- 
sects appeared in the context of death and decay. It could be 
concluded from this that the fly/body combination was in- 
tended, in the field of portraiture, to signify that the subject 
was already dead. Erich Egg has expressed such a conjecture 
with reference to this portrait: 
“It is quite possible that this picture was painted as a comme- 
morative portrait on Sigmund's death in 1496, in order to be 
hung by his tomb in Stams Monastery or used in the fune- 
ral. [ ] The fly on the jerkin, as symbol of transience, also 
suggests this." 39 
Apart from the fact that in this case the insect is less a Sym 
bol of transience - referring to the future - than a clear Sym 
bol of death, characterising the present state, this hypothesis, 
although definitive evidence cannot be supplied, has much to 
be said for it. 
Footnotes 
1 - Elfriede Baum, Katalog des Museums mittelalterlicher österreichischer 
Kunst, Vienna 1971, p. 141f. with bibliography of the earlier literature. 
2 - Spätgotik in Tirol. Malerei und Plastik von 1450 bis 1530, exhibition 
catalogue, Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna 1973, p. 94f.