Portrait of a seated gentleman

PIETRO FACCHETTI 

Mantova, 1539 – Rome, 1613

Portrait of a seated gentleman

oil on canvas, cm 116×87

This as yet unidentified person, who observes us with a severe and searching gaze, has been retraced by Emilio Negro, author of a study on the painting, to the hand of Mantua-born Pietro Facchetti, “engraver and painter whose work clearly shows Lombard, Venetian and North European influences”. A prolific author of portraits, who worked in the wake of Scipione Pulzone in Rome, to which he moved around the eighth decade of the Sixteenth century, he is remembered by Baglione for having painted “almost all the Roman ladies, and a considerable part of the gentlemen and titled persons in Rome”.

Consistently with the Lombard origin and Venetian influences of the painter suggested by Negro, the painting is characterized by a limited palette and the absence of secondary elements as curtains or columns, which allows the observer’s gaze to focus on the physiognomy and character of the portrayed person. The work is nevertheless softened by some details, rendered with great accuracy, as the collar in white lace that frames the subject’s fact and that stands out against the dark clothes, and the refined belt with an elegant buckle in embossed metal, rendered with great skill.