Anonymous Lombard painter Ceiling panel with bust-portrait in profile ca. 1500 oil on panel Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan |
Bartolomeo Veneto Portrait of a lady ca. 1510-15 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
Bartolomeo Veneto Portrait of a gentleman 1512 oil on panel Museum of Fine Arts, Houston |
Vincenzo Catena Portrait of a young man ca. 1510 oil on panel National Gallery, London |
"Another passing good painter in the time of these masters was Vincenzo Catena, who occupied himself much more with making portraits from the life than with any other sort of painting; and, in truth, some that are to be seen by his hand are marvelous . . ."
Moretto da Brescia Portrait of a man 1526 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
Jacopo Pontormo Portrait of Maria Salviati de' Medici with young Giulia de' Medici ca. 1539 oil on panel Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
"The first work, then, that Jacopo [Pontormo] executed at that time was a little Annunciation for one his friend, a tailor; but the tailor having died before the work was finished, it remained in the hands of Jacopo, who was at that time with Mariotto, and Mariotto took pride in it, and showed it as a rare work to all who entered his workshop. Now Raffaello da Urbino, coming in those days to Florence, saw with infinite marvel the work and the lad who had done it, and prophesied of Jacopo that which was afterwards seen to come true. Not long afterwards, Mariotto having departed from Florence and gone to Viterbo to execute the panel-picture that Fra Bartolomeo had begun there, Jacopo, who was young, solitary, and melancholy, being thus left without a master, went by himself to work under Andrea del Sarto, at the very moment when Andrea had finished the stories of S. Filippo in the court of the Servites, which pleased Jacopo vastly, as did all his other works and his whole manner and design. Jacopo having then set himself to make every effort to imitate him, no long time passed before it was seen that he had made marvelous progress in drawing and coloring, insomuch that from his facility it seemed as if he had been many years in art."
Bernardino Licinio Portrait of an architect, formerly identified as Andrea Palladio 1541 oil on canvas Royal Collection, Great Britain |
Agnolo Bronzino Portrait of Eleonora of Toledo 1543 oil on panel Národní Galerie, Prague |
Francesco Salviati Portrait of a man ca. 1544-48 oil on panel Getty Museum, Los Angeles |
"To tell the truth, Francesco [Salviati], feeling himself bold and fertile in invention, and having a hand obedient to his brain, would have liked always to have on his hands works large and out of the ordinary. And for no other reason was he strange in his dealings with his friends, save only for this, that, being variable and in certain things not very stable, what pleased him one day he hated the next; and he did few works of importance without having in the end to contend about the price, on which account he was avoided by many. . . . Even as those merry and jovial men are liked and held dear who live a free life and take part gladly in assemblies and banquets, so those are, I do not say shunned, but less liked and welcomed, who are by nature, as Francesco was, melancholy, abstinent, sickly, and cross-grained."
Titian Portrait of a monk with a book ca. 1550 oil on canvas National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
Giambattista Moroni Portrait of a left-handed gentleman (Il gentile cavaliere) before 1578 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
Giambattista Moroni Portrait of a man holding a letter ('L'Avvocato') before 1578 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
Giambattista Moroni Portrait of Canon Ludovico di Terzi before 1578 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
Giambattista Moroni Portrait of the sculptor Alessandro Vittoria 1552 oil on canvas Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna |