Antonio Verrio

Inscriptionback to top

Inscribed bottom left: Ecco Antonio/O’ il povero Verrio<sup>1

1</sup> ‘Here is Antonio, Oh poor Verrio’, presumably referring to his failing eyesight.

This portraitback to top

The sitter’s apparent age and the pathetic inscription indicate a late portrait, painted shortly before his blindness in 1704. Croft-Murray believed NPG 2890 was painted c.1704 either by Verrio ‘or by some friend’ and he read the inscription as ‘Cieco Antonio o il povero Verrio’. [1]

Footnotesback to top

1) ‘Blind Antonio, oh poor Verrio’. Croft-Murray, loc. cit., explained that Verrio’s eyesight was most probably affected by cataracts (gutta serena).

Referenceback to top

Croft-Murray 1962
E. Croft-Murray, Decorative Painting in England, I, Early Tudor to Sir James Thornhill, 1962, p 60.

Piper 1963
D. Piper, Catalogue of the Seventeenth Century Portraits in the National Portrait Gallery 1625-1714, 1963, pp 363-64.

Provenanceback to top

¹ John Perkins (d. c.1890) of Leak Wootton; his brother, James Edward Perkins (d. c.1896); his son, James Hickstead Perkins, of Oak Villa, Menston, near Leeds, from whom purchased 1936.

¹ An inventory of household goods belonging to the gardener Henry Wise at Brompton Park in November 1718 included ‘Seigno Vario’s own piece done by himself’ (D. Green, Henry Wise, 1956, p 216).

Exhibitionsback to top

Beningbrough 1985–2005.


This extended catalogue entry is from the National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Later Stuart Portraits 1685–1714, National Portrait Gallery, 2009, and is as published then. For the most up-to-date details on individual Collection works, we recommend reading the information provided in the Search the Collection results on this website in parallel with this text.

View all known portraits for Antonio Verrio