Portrait of Fortunato Martinengo Cesaresco is a 1542 oil on canvas painting by Moretto da Brescia, now in the National Gallery, London. [1] The use of X-ray photography during a 1973 restoration showed a table in front of the man with an open book on it. [2]
The earliest mention of the work is in a mid 19th-century inventory of count Teodoro Lechi's collection - the family archives add that he acquired the work in Brescia on 19 September 1843 and on 9 January 1854 sold it on to Charles Henfrey of Turin, where Lechi was exiled from 1849 to 1859. [3] In 1975 Cecil Gould cited documents in the National Gallery stating that in 1843 countess Marzia Martinengo Cesaresco had sold the painting to Lechi, who had married her daughter Clara. [4] It passed from Henfry to Otto Mündler in 1856 and two years later was acquired by its present owner. [5]