Portrait of a Gentleman with Book and Glove

Famous work by the mannerist painter Jacopo da Pontormo, brought to attention, after centuries of oblivion, in 1952 by the art historian Roberto Longhi, who on the pages of "Paragone", with his almost poetic prose, described it as follows: "In the slung, mannerist measure of the table, the figure of subtle grace, also slender, occupies almost all the height available, like a lute in a case. And from the case of the abstract shadow the intelligent and pathetic head slips out into the light like an egg, under that useless cap; the back of the right hand, pendulous, seems peeled, as if the glove it wears were its skin (was the model called Bartolomeo?); in the other hand the open book snaps, stopped by strong light as in a naturalist of a later age. "The disengaged refinement of the gentleman portrayed corresponds to the almost monochrome of the canvas, from which only the red lips and the blue shirt stand out. The identity of the character, still uncertain, it must probably be sought among the scholars of the Florentine Academy or among the prominent members of the Medici court.