Portrait of Galeozzo Sforza

Portrait of Galeazzo Sforza from 1550 is attributed to Bernardino Luini, though the late date suggests workshop production. Portraits of the Sforza dynasty, which had ruled Milan until the early sixteenth century, remained historically significant and commercially valuable. Oil on canvas — by the sixteenth century the dominant medium for ambitious works — allowed successive glazes of transparent color and freedom to rework the composition. Luini's absorption of Leonardo's sfumato technique—the soft, atmospheric modeling that dissolves contours in shadow—was more thorough and more commercially successful than any other Lombard follower, making him the primary vehicle for Leonardo's influence

The ducal portrait renders the Sforza prince with appropriate aristocratic dignity, combining the formal portrait tradition with the soft modeling of the Luini school.