JACOMETTO VENEZIANO
(active 1472, d. 1497)

Portrait of a Young Man

1490s
Oil on wood, 28 x 21 cm
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Jacometto Veneziano is one of the Venetian artists most deeply influenced by Antonello da Messina's arrival in Venice in the mid-1470s. He was patronized by notable patricians and humanists. A small group of portraits, including the present painting, is now generally accepted as his work.

The present portrait shows a youth bust-length and in three-quarter view, his eyes gazing off to the left. He is clad in black and is set against a dark background. A distinctive feature is the arrangement of his hair. This helmet-like styled is called a 'zazzera', it can be seen in numerous Venetian portraits dated to the late 1480s and 1490s.

Until the first half of the twentieth century, this portrait was thought to be the work of one of three artists: Alvise Vivarini, Antonello da Messina, or Giovanni Bellini.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.