Ritratto di Totila

Francesco Salviati's Ritratto di Totila, painted in 1549 and held in the Pinacoteca Civica of Como, depicts the Ostrogothic king Totila (died 552) — not from life, of course, but as a historical reconstruction in the tradition of imaginary portraits of ancient rulers and heroes. Such works satisfied humanist interest in the physical appearance of famous historical figures whose actual portraits had not survived. Salviati, one of the most intellectually ambitious Mannerist painters of mid-sixteenth-century Rome and Florence, excelled at this genre, which demanded learned historical knowledge alongside painterly skill. Totila, king of the Ostrogoths and conqueror of much of Italy, was a figure of enduring historical fascination — hero or villain depending on one's perspective — and his imaginary portrait provided Salviati an opportunity to project Mannerist ideals of masculine power and historical grandeur.

Oil on canvas, the imaginary historical portrait deploys the conventions of contemporary portraiture — three-quarter view, direct gaze, carefully rendered armor — to project historical authority onto a reconstructed ancient figure. Salviati's characteristic smooth, polished paint surface and cool color sense give the work the formal elegance of courtly representation combined with a slightly archaic, antiquarian quality.