Portrait of a Clad Warrior
Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, 1600
This canvas shows a man in armour leaning against a shelf in a small room lined with two mirrors. He leans toward the viewer along a strong diagonal that ends in his outstretched left arm, pointing to the reflected image. The result offers front, back and side views of the same figure at once, a device linked to a Renaissance debate on the comparison of the arts, in which it was argued whether painting could show several views of one subject, something then regarded as the domain of sculpture. Savoldo seems to answer that question with his own means. Tradition has linked the sitter to Gaston de Foix, though no documents support this and it is considered unlikely, since it would be a posthumous portrait lacking the composure such commissions usually had. A self-portrait has also been proposed, equally without documentary evidence. The metallic sheen of the armour and the red velvet sleeves create bright chromatic accents against dark shadows, a feature typical of the painter's work.
- Painter
- Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo
- Date
- 1600
- Medium
- oil paint, canvas
- Dimensions
- 91 × 123 cm
- Museum
- Louvre Museum, Paris
- Genre
- portrait
- Depicts
- painter, table, mirror image, mirror, man
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