A Man with a Pink Carnation

Andrea Solari, who was a leading Milanese painter who absorbed Leonardo's sfumato technique during his years in Milan, created this work around 1495, now in London's National Gallery. This work reflects the artistic culture of Milan during the High Renaissance, when the innovations of the early fifteenth century reached their mature expression in works of unprecedented technical and compositional sophistication. This work belongs to the High Renaissance, when the innovations of the preceding century were synthesized into works of monumental clarity and ideal beauty.

Accomplished tempera technique is evident in the smooth modeling of forms and the controlled color harmonies, with the composition following the spatial principles developed by fifteenth-century Italian workshops.