Andrea Mantegna “Portrait of a Man” Poldi Pezzoli Museum in Milan in Italy

Portrait of a Man

Andrea Mantegna (1431 — 13 September 1506) “Portrait of a Man”

Painting - Tempera on wood (32.3 x 28.8 cm) 1450

Andrea Mantegna painted the portrait of an important, determined and self-confident character here. The pursed lips of this man, his look, and his energetic face are all elements used by the painter to show not only his will, his strength of character but also his “power”.

The headdress matching the purple scarf and the scarlet red garment worn by this inflexible man was the emblem of the magistrates of the Venetian Republic or the jurists, offices entrusted to men of high rank in society.

Portrait of a Man The colours of the garments give a lot of dynamism to this portrait, including the slight white edge of the shirt that stands out all the better on the fur collar and neck.

Note in this respect that the “black” background on which this bust of a man stands out was brilliant blue at the time the painting was made.

This element was discovered during a restoration, which showed that the background had been painted using lapis lazuli, the azure stone whose colour unfortunately turned black over time.

Andrea Mantegna painted this man in profile, following the Italian pictorial tradition of the mid-15th century.

Portrait of a Man