SOLARIO, Andrea
(b. ca. 1460, Milano, d. 1525, Pavia)

Portrait of a Man

c. 1500
Panel, 42 x 32 cm
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

At one time the painting was attributed to Cesare da Sesto.

In layout this painting derives from the work of Antonello da Messina, whose influence was still very much alive in north Italian portraiture in Solario's time. But a newer and more fundamental model for the face was Leonardo's art. The white edge of the collar underscores and isolates the features, which are also indicated compositionally by the hand emerging from behind the border of the parapet. The light spreads and vibrates in the chiaroscuro of the face, as if intended to soften the willfulness of its expression.




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