This man, previously described as the military commander Gaston de Foix (1489-1512), has recently been identified as the artist Girolamo Savoldo. The position of his hands mimics that of an artist holding a paintbrush and palette, allowing for the mirror reversal of a right-handed person. This painting, a copy of an autograph version in the Louvre, is a reference to an ongoing debate (paragone) in Renaissance literature about the relative merits of painting versus sculpture. Savoldo demonstrates that a painting can show multiple views of a figure simultaneously using reflections, unlike sculpture in which the views must be seen sequentially.

Cat. 52