The portrait of Flaminio Torrigiani

This is the portrait of the Parmesan Flaminio Torregiani (1729 - 1792), a protophysicist, physician and ducal surgeon, professor of anatomy since 1768 and then of theoretical medicine and experimental physics. He was also a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Parma. The painting, by Melchiorre Ferrari, is one of the most finest examples of Parma portraiture, which took inspiration from the French models during the second half of the 18th Century. What is typical of the artist is the deep attention that is dedicated to the details, to the material of the costumes, to the gesture, to the expression and to the introspective analysis, combined with a technical rigor determined by his academic education. Torregiani's portrait becomes an example of this way of portraying a subject: he's shown to us through a detailed and clear description of the details, and of the setting; the statuette of Aesculapius, the Greek god protector of medicine, is an "attribute" used to characterize Torregiani and his personality.