UNKNOWN MASTER, Flemish
(late 16th century)

Portrait of Giambologna in his Studio

1570s
Panel, 89 x 66 cm
National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh

The sculptor Giovanni da Bologna is shown seated on a stool at a table, holding a pair of dividers and twisting round to look out at the viewer. In the background there is a view of the artist's studio with a large model of the marble Neptune for the Fountain of Oceanus, originally in the Boboli Gardens, now in the Bargello.

Previous attribution of this portrait was to Hans von Aachen, and tentatively, Bartolomeo Passaroti. The author was, in fact, almost certainly Flemish.