Italian School, 16th / 17th Century. Portrait of cardinal Petrus de Fonseca / Pedro a Fonseca (Cortizada 1528 - 1599 Lissabon).

Oil on canvas, unframed, inscribed on the lower end of the painting, and indistinctly signed on a painted sheet op paper on the table. With inscription: PETRVS DE FONSECA EBOR. LVSIT. A MARTINO V DIACONVS CARD. S. ANGEL(...) [L]EGATA LATERE IN HISPANIAS NEAPOLI(...) ET CONSTANTINOP. IN VATICANO SEPT(...). / MCDXII and Portuguese family crest (Fonseca, derived from fonte seca/ dry well) Various areas of retouches and inpaint. Dim.: 137 x 100 cm. Note: Petrus Fonseca was a Portuguese Jesuit. He was one of those who set the curriculum for Jesuit schools across Europe by drawing up the Jesuit Ratio Studiorum. He also initiated the production of commentaries on Aristotle, known as the 'Conimbricenses', a group of texts used in many schools and universities in the seventeenth century. He himself wrote two important books, an introduction to logic and a commentary on Aristotle's Metaphysics. The text on logic was one of two alternatives prescribed by the Ratio Studiorum, an instruction on Jesuit teaching from 1599. His Metaphysica commentary was also used at many Jesuit schools. In short, Fonseca was a highly influential humanist in the scholastic Aristotelian tradition of the late sixteenth century, and he played an important role in the development of philosophy in the early modern age. Estimate: € 1.500 - € 2.000.