Ritratto di Bonifacio Agliardi

The 1565 Ritratto di Bonifacio Agliardi in the Condé Museum, Chantilly, depicts a member of the Agliardi family, one of the prominent Bergamasco noble families that appear several times in Moroni's portrait output. The Agliardi were significant patrons: Lucrezia Agliardi Vertova, the abbess in the Metropolitan Museum, and Angelica Agliardi de Nicolinis in the companion portrait (also at Chantilly) belong to the same extended family network. The Condé Museum's French holding of two related Agliardi portraits suggests they may have entered the collection as a pair or group, reflecting their original function as family images for a specific household. By 1565, Moroni's approach was fully mature, and the Agliardi male portrait would have applied his standard direct observation to a member of a family he knew well through multiple commissions.

Oil on canvas with Moroni's fully mature technique. The male Agliardi portrait likely follows his standard formula for Bergamasco noble men: three-quarter or half-length, dark costume, neutral background, individually characterised face. The pair with the female Agliardi portrait suggests they were conceived as complementary works, possibly husband and wife or brother and sister.