Portrait of a Man

Domenico Ghirlandaio's Portrait of a Man, painted around 1478 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shows the Florentine master's gift for portraiture that also made his frescoes so engaging. Ghirlandaio was celebrated for incorporating recognizable contemporary portraits into his sacred narratives, and his independent portraits demonstrate the same precise, sympathetic observation. The work dates to his rising years before the great Tornabuoni Chapel frescoes.

Ghirlandaio renders the sitter with characteristic Florentine precision, using clear drawing and warm, naturalistic flesh tones that capture individual features with the documentary accuracy that made his portraits valued records of contemporary life.