Portrait of Count Ferenc Nádasdy

The painting is signed on the bottom at right. Later it was transferred to a new canvas.

Count Ferenc N�dasdy was born at in 1622. He studied law at Siena and later took two more trips to Italy. A Lutheran by birth, in 1643 he converted to Catholicism and the following year married Anna Julianna, daughter of Mikl�s Esterh�zy. He and his brother-in-law P�l Esterh�zy attended Ferdinand IV’s coronation as King of Rome in Frankfurt in 1653, and then travelled around Germany. In 1655 he became Seneschal, the second highest ranking dignitary in Hungary. N�dasdy was the richest art collector and most versatile art patron in 17th-century Hungary. He had the ceiling of the grand hall in his castle at S�rv�r decorated with scenes of the 15-year war against the Turks. Come of his portraits depict him as a sponsor of the church; others relate to his parliamentary work. At the close of his life he participated in the abortive Wessel�nyi revolt against Habsburg absolutism, for which he was beheaded at the Vienna town hall. His property was confiscated.