''Portrait of a Man'' is a painting by the

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

painter Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449–1494) executed in

tempera Tempera (), also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigments mixed with a water-soluble binder medium, usually glutinous material such as egg yolk. Tempera also refers to the paintings done ...

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

Painting

Domenico Ghirlandaio was an

painter who was active in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany Regions of Italy, region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilan ...

. He was a representative of the Florentine Renaissance, along with

Verrocchio Andrea del Verrocchio (, , ; – 1488), born Andrea di Michele di Francesco de' Cioni, was a sculptor, Italian painter and goldsmith who was a master of an important workshop in Florence. He apparently became known as ''Verrocchio'' after the ...

, the Pollaiolo brothers and

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...

. The painting is an early work of the painter, probably painted at the same time when he painted the frescos in the Collegiate Church of San Gimignano. Ghirlandaio was noted for capturing the facial expression of his sitters in a remarkable way, rendering them with animated expressions. The painting was cleaned and renovated, revealing the bright green background underneath a layer of oxidised pigment. The

identity Identity may refer to: * Identity document * Identity (philosophy) * Identity (social science) * Identity (mathematics) Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Identity'' (1987 film), an Iranian film * ''Identity'' (2003 film), ...

of the man depicted in the painting is unknown. In 15th-century

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

, the stylistic development of individual portrait-painting had awoken with new vigor after a thousand years of silence. The last period in the history was in the antiquity, when the Romans were known for their prolific depiction of individual traits of peoples. After the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

this was mostly reserved for

ruler A ruler, sometimes called a rule, line gauge, or scale, is a device used in geometry and technical drawing, as well as the engineering and construction industries, to measure distances or draw straight lines. Variants Rulers have long ...

s and notable members of the aristocracy and historic figures. The new kind of depictions from the Renaissance were based on the emerging sense of

individuality An individual is that which exists as a distinct entity. Individuality (or self-hood) is the state or quality of being an individual; particularly (in the case of humans) of being a person unique from other people and possessing one's own need ...

, the visual sense of self-understanding; a new kind of self-presentation that in our modern era is taken for granted. The painting remained in Italy until 1829, when it was acquired by the Königliche Museen zu Berlin (later the

Kaiser Friedrich Museum The Bode-Museum (English: ''Bode Museum''), formerly called the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum (''Emperor Frederick Museum''), is a listed building on the Museum Island in the historic centre of Berlin. It was built from 1898 to 1904 by order of Germa ...

, now part of the

Berlin State Museums The Berlin State Museums (german: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin) are a group of institutions in Berlin, Germany, comprising seventeen museums in five clusters, several research institutes, libraries, and supporting facilities. They are overseen ...

). Originally attributed to Ghirlandaio, it was re-attributed to his brother-in-law and artistic follower

Sebastiano Mainardi Bastiano di Bartolo Mainardi (1466 – 1513) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He was born in San Gimignano and was active there and in Florence. According to Giorgio Vasari, Mainardi is portrayed in the frescoes in the Sass ...

and sold in 1924. After passing through the hands of several dealers, it was acquired in New York by art collector Michael Friedsam who bequeathed it to the

Metropolitan Museum of Arts The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 F ...

in 1931.

References

External links

The power of portraitsThe Renaissance Portrait, Metropolitan Museum, New York
{{Domenico Ghirlandaio Paintings by Domenico Ghirlandaio Paintings in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art 15th-century portraits 1490s paintings Portraits of men

Painting

See also

References

External links