Portrait of a Man

Filippo Mazzola's Portrait of a Man, painted around 1500 and now in the Lowe Art Museum in Miami, is a work by the father of the more celebrated Parmigianino, working in Parma at the end of the fifteenth century. Filippo Mazzola, a painter of solid reputation in the Parma region, absorbed influence from the Venetian tradition — through contact with Bellini and the broader Veneto — and from the Lombard-Emilian tradition emanating from Milan and Ferrara. His portrait of an unknown man demonstrates the quiet competence of provincial Italian portraiture in the years around 1500, when the conventions established by Antonello da Messina and Bellini had fully permeated Italian workshop practice.

The three-quarter portrait follows the standard Italian format with a plain ground — either dark or architectural — and careful observation of the sitter's specific features. Venetian warm modeling characterizes the flesh tones. The costume is rendered with appropriate descriptive attention to the sitter's status.