Vincenzo Anastagi Knight of Malta : marginal notes in his biography

Abstract

One of the portraits that are part of the sumptuous Frick Collection of New York, has a reference to Malta and the Knights of the Order of Saint John of Jerusalem. It represents Vincenzo Anastagi, a knight, who distinguished himself during the Siege of Malta in 1565. This portrait was acquired in England by Henry Frick in 1913. It was first recorded in the sale of William Cunningham's collection at Christie's, London, on the 18th June 1849. The painting is signed by El Greco, and shows Anastagi clad in full armour. A later artist must have added on the left hand side of the original canvas, a pedestal which bears an inscription. Nothing so far is known of how or when El Greco came in contact with Vincenzo Anastagi. According to the printed catalogue of the Frick Collection, Willumsen, the art critic, attributes :the painting to about 1572, and ascertains that it must have been executed at Rome. The present study is a sort of a curriculum vitae of Vincenzo Anastagi in the Order, in the margin of his biography.