Portrait of the Miniature Painter Karl Bruni (Portrait of an Unknown Nobleman)

Combining the influences of Roman and French portraiture, one of the most impressive paintings by Johann Kupezky was created at the beginning of his sojourn in Vienna. Comfortably seated in an armchair, the portrayed man is captured at work on a miniature. The identity of the model is not quite clear; his activity and other attributes of a painter’s work visible on the small table led to a conviction that this is a not-well-known Viennese miniaturist Karl Bruni, who was Kupezky’s witness at his wedding (December 29, 1709). The exclusive milieu, luxury clothes and other distinct symbols of affluence and nobility, same as the sitter’s natural pose, elegance and confidence, and the prestigious concept of the representation much rather point to a cultured dilettante painter from aristocratic circles. The details in the back – an obelisk, round antiquity-inspired temple, and a vase – refer to the interests of the portrayed man or perhaps are reminiscent of his stay in Italy.