Portrait of a Gentleman (c. 1505): Artwork and History

Portrait of a Gentleman (c. 1505) is in the Art Institute of Chicago collection. The museum lists its creator attribution as Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1483–1561).

The work and its context

The Art Institute of Chicago describes the work:

The unknown sitter in this arresting portrait wears a furlined robe and capuccio, a hood rolled up and worn as a hat—both conventional apparel for well-to-do Florentine merchants. Ridolfo Ghirlandaio’s pyramidal presentation of the sitter and use of active, searching light reveal his study of portraits by Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. The son of renowned Florentine painter Domenico Ghirlandaio, Ridolfo successfully continued the family workshop well into the 16th century.

Object facts

• Title: Portrait of a Gentleman
• Date: c. 1505
• Artist attribution: Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (Italian, 1483–1561)
• Place of origin: Italy
• Medium: Oil, with tempera (?), on panel, transferred to canvas
• Dimensions: 68.2 × 49.2 cm (26 11/16 × 19 3/8 in.); Framed: 94.7 × 77.5 × 8.3 cm (37 1/4 × 30 1/2 × 3 1/4 in.)
• Type: Painting
• Department: Painting and Sculpture of Europe
• Reference number: 1933.1009

Collection credit

Mr. and Mrs. Martin A. Ryerson Collection

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The description above is credited to the Art Institute of Chicago and reused under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0; HTML formatting has been converted to plain text. Other catalogue metadata and the public-domain image are provided under CC0 1.0.