Jacob BUNEL (French, 1558- before 1614)

Portrait of a Flautist

Oil on canvas; 18 x 14 inches (46 x 36 cm)

Signed and dated on reverse: IACOMo*BUNE*F 1591 VÉNETE

As court painter to Henri IV of France, Jacob Bunel was a highly esteemed painter in his own time. He was responsible for decorating important court architectural schemes in late C17th France, including the Tuileries Palace and the Petit Galerie at the Louvre, as well as a series of 40 portraits executed in Spain for Philip II. However, the majority of his oeuvre is lost or destroyed, and this picture is the only dated work belonging to a body of three paintings and a handful of surviving drawings by the artist. While he is thought to have studied Titian in Spain and to have been in Rome working with Zuccaro and Pomarancio, this picture provides the first documentary evidence of Bunel being in Venice.