Portrait of a Young Man With a Book
Lorenzo Lotto, 1526
This portrait by Lorenzo Lotto shows a young man whose head turns toward the viewer with an intense, three-quarter gaze, while his body leans slightly forward. The very close framing heightens the sense of intimacy and of a complex inner life. Against a dark green curtain with deep shadows, the face stands out, partly in shade under a flat cap trimmed with gold chains, along with the hands, one gloved and one bare, holding a book. The grey garment with black quilted velvet bands and the embroidered cuffs and collar of the white shirt complete a restrained, refined ensemble. The composition rests on diagonals that create a sense of suspended tension, echoed by the gesture of the hands, as if they had just closed the volume. In places the brushwork becomes strikingly free and modern. The work is dated to around 1526, at the transition between Lotto's Bergamo period and his early years in Venice. It departs from the idealism of Titian and the melancholy reflections of Giorgione, drawing instead on the realism of Bergamasque painters such as Previtali and Licinio.
- Painter
- Lorenzo Lotto
- Date
- 1526
- Medium
- oil paint, panel
- Dimensions
- 35 × 28 cm
- Museum
- Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan
- Genre
- portrait
- Depicts
- young adult man
More works by Lorenzo Lotto
