MORONI, Giovanni Battista
(b. 1525, Albino, d. 1578, Bergamo)

Portrait of Antonio Navagero

1565
Oil on canvas, 115 x 90 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

A Latin inscription on the lower right identifies the subject and gives the date of the painting: 1565.

This is a typical example of an alternative form of portraiture to Titian's heroic and solemn type, Tintoretto's uneasy and dramatic renderings, and Lotto's subtly tormented and introspective works. Moroni's portrait is purely bourgeois and combines the measure of Veronese's portraits with the more worldly effects of Moretto. The result is entirely new, for it amounts to the discovery of a different type of ethical and psychological balance.