Portrait of a Man

This portrait shows a man standing and leaning on a table, presented in a three-quarter view. The man has a rich black beard, and wears an upper garment made of lustrous black fabric, further topped by a black robe. His left hand is holding the edges of the robe together at his waist, and he holds a small book in his right hand. A single book rests on the table. A bright green curtain cuts diagonally across the background with sharp folds, seemingly lit from the upper left. The effects of oil painting techniques can at first glance be seen to speak of the characteristics of the Venetian school. B. Berenson attributes the work to Sebastiano del Piombo, and identifies the subject as Ercole II, Duke of Ferrera, but he leaves question marks around these attributions. However, the resemblance between this work and confirmed portraits by Sebastiano is purely a surface effect. R. Pallucchini considers this painting to be the work of the Florentine painter Francesco Salviati. While W. R. Rearick has verbally concurred with Pallucchini's attribution, Rearick suggests that when Salviati spent time in Venice (1539-40), he painted this portrait under the influence of the painting style of that city.(Source: Masterpieces of the National Museum of Western Art, Tokyo, 2009, cat. no. 16)