GHISLANDI, Giuseppe
(b. 1655, Bergamo, d. 1743, Bergamo)

Self-Portrait

1732
Oil on canvas, 73 x 58 cm
Accademia Carrara, Bergamo

The self-portrait, signed and dated at lower right, depicting the seventy-seven-year-old painter, was originally destined for the Uffizi in Florence, where it would have been included in the famous gallery that exhibited the portraits of the most celebrated painters. Placed on the easel behind the painter is a canvas bearing the sketch of a youthful figure who is perhaps identifiable as a pupil of Ghislandi, who died in the Galgario convent at the age of only twenty-two.