Portrait of Alessandro de Richao

Filippo Mazzola, who was a painter active in Parma and is the father of the famous Mannerist painter Parmigianino, created this work around 1491, now in Madrid's Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum. Portrait painting emerged as a major genre during the fifteenth century, reflecting the growing emphasis on individual identity and the secular confidence of the merchant and aristocratic classes. Filippo Mazzola, active in Parma, brought mature Renaissance mastery to the art of portraiture.

The portrait employs the three-quarter view that became standard in fifteenth-century portraiture, allowing for both physiognomic specificity and psychological depth in the rendering of the sitter's features.