Portrait of an Old Man
mid-1500s
Medium
oil on wood
Dimensions
unframed: 92.4 × 63.5 cm · framed: 120.7 × 91.4 × 11.4 cm
Classification
Painting
Department
European Painting and Sculpture
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Holden Collection
Accession Number
1916.794
Tags
About this artwork
Part of a distinguished family of Northern northern Italian painters, Campi depicts his sitter with an unidealized face dominated by carefully observed wrinkles. He stares out intently while grasping what may be a letter with its paper seal broken in his right hand. Despite this intense gaze the figure does not establish a lively connection with the viewer, and his mood remains distant and reserved, in keeping with Renaissance ideas about elegant comportment. Though his costume appears plain, th...