portrait of Bindo Altoviti

This entry records a portrait of Bindo Altoviti by Francesco Salviati dated around 1545, medium listed as marble, held at the Metropolitan Museum. Bindo Altoviti (1491–1557) was the Florentine banker and art patron whose portrait had been famously painted by Raphael around 1510 and whose bust was sculpted by Benvenuto Cellini. A marble portrait in the context of a painting database likely indicates either a misattribution, a drawn or painted portrait of Altoviti executed in grisaille mimicking marble, or a record that conflates the painted and sculptural portraits of this sitter. Altoviti was among the most significant patrons of the Florentine artistic community in Rome, and multiple artists sought to capture his likeness. Salviati's network overlapped significantly with Altoviti's circle in Rome during the 1540s.

If this is a grisaille or sculptural simulation in paint, Salviati would have deployed the monochromatic modeling associated with imitation-marble (finto marmo) technique — cool gray and white tones building up the illusion of carved stone through careful tonal gradation. Such works demonstrated both technical virtuosity and learned reference to classical sculptural portraiture.