Portrait of Vincenzo Guarignonic. 1572
The Latin inscription gives the sitter's name and age (45), as well as the painting's date. Guarignoni came from a prominent family in the northern Italian city of Bergamo. More about this work
About this work
The Latin inscription gives the sitter's name and age (45), as well as the painting's date. Guarignoni came from a prominent family in the northern Italian city of Bergamo. His direct and thoughtful gaze enhances the painting’s lifelike quality, while the solemn detachment conveys dignity and excellence rather than an exact personality, a common approach in Renaissance portraiture.
Text from the Cleveland Museum of Art.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Giovanni Battista Moroni
Italian, 1525–1578
Renaissance
European art from about 1400 to 1600, when painters rediscovered perspective and the classical past.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Cleveland Museum of Art has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1962.1
- Credit
- Courtesy of the Cleveland Museum of Art
- Type
- Painting
- Department
- European Painting and Sculpture
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
