Brutus and Portia.

Michele da Verona's Brutus and Portia, painted around 1500 and now in the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow, depicts the Roman episode from Plutarch and Shakespeare's Julius Caesar in which Portia, wife of Marcus Junius Brutus, wounds herself in the thigh to prove to her husband that she can bear pain and keep secrets — demonstrating her fitness to share in the conspirators' plans. Michele da Verona was a painter in the tradition of Pisanello and the Veronese antiquarian school, with a strong interest in classical subjects and the narrative painting of Roman history that appealed to humanist patrons. The Czartoryski Museum, one of Poland's great historic collections, preserves this work as a document of humanist historical painting in Renaissance Italy.

The composition depicts the confrontation between the two figures — Portia displaying her self-inflicted wound to the startled Brutus — in a compositional format suited to narrative painting. Michele da Verona's antiquarian interest shows in the classical setting and costume. The palette and modeling reflect Veronese practice.