Portrait of a Man

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Artist: Paolo Veronese (Italian, 1528–1588)
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 192.1 × 134 cm (75 5/8 × 52 3/4 in.)
Culture: Italian
Museum: J. Paul Getty Museum
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

The identity of this man is a mystery. At one point, scholars believed the painting may to be a self-portrait, but such speculation remains unconfirmed, since the sitter’s facial features differ somewhat from Veronese’s early self-portrait at the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg. Though his talents in the genre are largely unrecognized by modern audiences, Veronese was once regarded as Venice’s greatest portraitist. Sixteenth-century biographer Giorgio Vasari, despite his bias toward Florentine artists, voiced his admiration of Veronese’s portraits, which he said were all “beautiful and truly representing the court of the pope and of the emperor and a Venetian Senate, with many noblemen and senators of that Republic portrayed from life.”

The man leans on the base of a structure with fluted columns. In a niche between the columns is a marble sculpture of a draped female figure, of which only the lower portion is visible. These clues may refer to the subject's profession, perhaps that of a sculptor or architect. Carved reliefs, barely discernible, adorn the sides of the architectural base.

The one at the right perhaps illustrates a classical hero or a warrior in armor. His formal black attire and sword may also imply high military rank or membership in an order of knighthood. In the background at the lower left is the Venetian Basilica of San Marco, placed in an imaginary pastoral setting. The inclusion of the basilica likely alludes to the sitter's association with the church or the Venetian state.

Text: J. Paul Getty Trust, CC BY 4.0.