An Old Man and his Grandson

Domenico Ghirlandaio's An Old Man and His Grandson, painted around 1490 and now in the Louvre, is one of the most touching portraits of the Italian Renaissance. The old man, his nose disfigured by rhinophyma (a skin condition), gazes lovingly at his young grandson who looks up at him with complete trust. The painting's unflinching realism in depicting physical imperfection alongside genuine human affection makes it a landmark in the history of portraiture.

Ghirlandaio renders the old man's disfigured nose with the precise, documentary realism of the Florentine tradition while capturing the tender psychological exchange between grandfather and child with remarkable emotional sensitivity.