Portrait of a Man
The head, shoulders, and chest of a man wearing a deep rose-red garment fills this vertical portrait painting. His body is angled slightly to our left, and he looks directly at us from the corners of his eyes. His brown hair falls across his forehead, sweeps down over his ears, and curls gently at the nape of his neck. His eyebrows arch over brown eyes, and he has a long, angular nose. His upper lip is full, and his mouth is closed. He has high cheekbones and a cleft in his chin. The high collar is a black band over the voluminous red garment, which falls in pleats or folds down his chest. His right hand, on our left, lifts to clutch the fabric near his chest, in the lower left corner of the painting, and he wears a gold ring on his pinky finger. The background behind the man fades from dark aquamarine blue across the top to pale arctic blue at his shoulders, which span the width of the composition.
Details
- Palette
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Select a color to find related artworks.
- Medium
- tempera on panel
- Dimensions
- painted surface: 54.2 x 40.4 cm (21 5/16 x 15 7/8 in.) support: 55.5 x 41.2 cm (21 7/8 x 16 1/4 in.) framed: 86.4 x 74.9 x 8.9 cm (34 x 29 1/2 x 3 1/2 in.)
- Department
- CIS-R
- Holding institution
- National Gallery of Art
- Image provider
- national-gallery-of-art
- License
- CC0-1.0
- Credit
- Andrew W. Mellon Collection
Art Genome Taxonomy
6 tags
Subject Matter
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Individual Portrait Both · 99%
The title and catalog identify the work as Portrait of a Man, and the image shows one male sitter presented as the dominant subject of the composition.
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Face Visual · 99%
The sitter’s face is the central focal point, with clearly articulated eyes, brows, nose, mouth, cheekbones, and chin.
Styles and Movements
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Renaissance Art Interpretive · 86%
The circa 1450 date, the artist Andrea del Castagno, and the individualized formal portrait format support a Renaissance-art classification, although the supplied catalog does not explicitly list a style.
Visual Qualities
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Color Gradient Visual · 96%
The background transitions visibly from dark aquamarine blue at the top to much paler blue around the sitter’s shoulders.
Medium and Techniques
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Painting Metadata · 99%
The catalog classifies the object as a painting and specifies the medium as tempera on panel.
Time Periods
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15th Century Art Metadata · 99%
The catalog dates the work to circa 1450, placing it in the fifteenth century.
Source & rights
Andrea del Castagno. Portrait of a Man. Courtesy National Gallery of Art, Washington.