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| Lavinia Fontana Portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli, her five sons, and her daughter Verginia ca. 1604-1605 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Robert Peake the Elder Portrait of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (elder brother of the future Charles I) ca. 1603-1605 oil on panel Museum of London |
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| Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti) Portrait of a Noblewoman dressed in Mourning ca. 1600 oil on canvas Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Jacopo da Empoli (Jacopo Chimenti) Portrait of a Lady as St Margaret ca. 1600 oil on canvas private collection |
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| Agostino Carracci Portrait of Anna Parolini Guicciardini 1598 oil on canvas Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
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| Piermaria Bagnadore Portrait of a Man in Armour 1596 oil on canvas Pinacoteca Tosio Martinengo, Brescia |
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| Scipione Pulzone Portrait of Cardinal Michele Bonelli Ghislieri 1586 oil on canvas Harvard Art Museums |
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| Scipione Pulzone Portrait of a Lady ca. 1580-90 oil on canvas Walters Art Museum, Baltimore |
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| Scipione Pulzone Portrait of a Cardinal ca. 1575 oil on canvas National Gallery, London |
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| Johann Gregor van der Schardt Bust of Anna Imhoff ca. 1580 painted terracotta Bode Museum, Berlin |
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| Johann Gregor van der Schardt Bust of Willibald Imhoff ca. 1570 painted terracotta Bode Museum, Berlin |
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| George Gower Portrait of Lady Philippa Coningsby 1578 oil on panel Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| Girolamo Miruoli Ornamental Mask ca. 1570 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Cristóvão de Morais Portrait of Sebastian I of Portugal ca. 1570-75 oil on canvas Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon |
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| Mirabello Cavalori Portrait of a Woman ca. 1570 oil on panel private collection |
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| Mirabello Cavalori Portrait of a Man ca. 1560-65 oil on panel private collection |
"With these preparations and precepts, and the canvas primed and ready, we arrive at how to begin the portrait. If it is to be full-length, and if the subject tires of standing, the canvas may be lowered a certain distance on the stretcher so both the artist and the person being portrayed may be seated, and the excess linen can be rolled at the bottom of the stretcher. North or northerly light will be more constant and temperate, and the other three directions should be avoided because of the harshness of their sunlight. Some like to paint in the afternoon because the flesh is in perfect color then. But my disposition is better accommodated in the morning, when no other occupation has yet distracted my concentration and understanding. From nine until twelve, it will be possible to draw and bosquexar the head, and if some parts remain unfinished, they can be completed another day at the same hour. First, the length of the face must be taken with a compass with the light falling from high above, but without making the shadows too strong. The painter should place himself at an appropriate distance, neither too close nor too far, from which he can turn easily to see both the subject and the canvas. The head should be studied carefully, to see whether it tends to be long or round, and the form of the whole in relation to its parts. The outline will be made with a long pointed yeso mate, exercising dexterity and propriety as if you were going to leave the portrait thus. The painter should not move on until he is satisfied that in the contours he has captured a very good likeness of his patron, and if possible, that the patron himself should examine it before the colors are prepared. I do not consider it wise to leave the likeness to brushwork, preferring to achieve it little by little with the bosquexo and the finishing touches. It happens that in my drawings, the subject can be recognized by the lines alone; but how can this ever be done by someone who does not lift a pencil to draw in a full year? I have observed, with all respect, that those who follow only the oficio of portraiture and do not study it thoroughly, never make the parts of the portrait accurately, but only approximate its totality (that is to say, the 'air' of the sitter), and all their portraits are made with one method of drawing and coloring, and therefore all the persons portrayed give the impression of being kin; in some parts, such as the ears, which rarely are studied and painted with care, there often is no difference at all from one head to the next. Yet those artist who are valiente reflect all the variety and difference found in their living subjects, even in the smallest details, because they have the advantage of knowledge and practice in drawing."
– Francesco Pacheco, from The Art of Painting (1649), translated by Zahira Veliz (1986)