Signed lower right: IO BAT MORONUS / MDLXXVI

Giovan Battista Moroni painted religious works and decorative schemes, but his fame derives from his portraits. The man in this work has not been identified, although he certainly exudes personality. The set of his jaw and his direct gaze demonstrate his resolve; Moroni shows him confidently stepping forward, one hand on the hilt of his sword. The neutral background, with Moroni’s characteristic imaginative architectural detail, allows the figure to command all our attention – save, perhaps, for the curiously thin-limbed, ghostly shadow on the wall behind him. The shadow heightens the believability of the depiction by marking his position in illusionistic space.

Source: Richard Lingner, "Portrait of a Man," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 93.

Purchased in 1895 Galleria Sangiorgi, Rome.