Seneca

Seneca's inclusion in the Urbino Famous Men programme reflected the intense humanist interest in Stoic philosophy that characterised the courts of fifteenth-century Italy. Seneca's moral essays — particularly the Letters to Lucilius — were among the most read ancient texts in the Renaissance, and Federico da Montefeltro's admiration for Stoic endurance and virtue made Seneca a natural presence among his illustrious men. Justus van Gent gave Seneca the standard old-scholar physiognomy, possibly influenced by the profile portraits on Roman coins.

Justus depicts Seneca as a gaunt, contemplative elder, the Flemish technique modelling the hollowed cheeks and wrinkled brow with psychological realism unusual in Italian treatments of historical portraits. The dark ground against which Seneca's pale face emerges creates a dramatic chiaroscuro effect characteristic of Justus's mature Flemish-Italian synthesis.