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This portrait is considered to be a replica in his own hand of an almost identical portrait in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, which identifies the subject as Daniele Barbaro in an inscription. The picture in Ottawa is probably that mentioned in 1545 in a letter from Pietro Aretino, which once belonged to the portrait collection of Paolo Giovio in Como. With the body turned slightly to the right and the grave, spiritual face framed by the beard and hair, Daniele Barbaro's gaze is fixed on the viewer. His black gown reveals scarcely anything except the left hand and the book, which, as an attribute of scholarship, alludes to Barbaro's humanistic education. Barbaro was hardly 30 years old at this date.
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