Ptolemy

Justus van Gent (Joos van Wassenhove) was a Flemish painter who moved to Urbino around 1472 to work for Federico da Montefeltro, one of the most sophisticated humanist patrons in Italy. His portrait of Ptolemy belongs to the famous series of Uomini Illustri — Famous Men — that Federico commissioned for the studiolo of his Urbino palace, comprising twenty-eight portraits of ancient philosophers, Church fathers, and contemporary thinkers. Justus painted the philosophers while Pedro Berruguete produced the others, and the collaboration between a Flemish and a Spanish painter for an Italian humanist court is itself a remarkable document of Renaissance cultural exchange.

Justus van Gent paints Ptolemy in the profile or three-quarter format standard for the Famous Men series, identifying him through an armillary sphere — his astronomical instrument — rendered with precision. The Flemish oil technique gives Ptolemy's robes a material richness that contrasts with the more linear approach of the Italian tradition.