Profile of a Man (Mantegna)

Andrea Mantegna's Profile of a Man, painted around 1460 and now in the Museo Poldi Pezzoli, Milan, demonstrates the classical profile portrait format revived from ancient Roman coins and medals. Mantegna was the Renaissance painter most deeply committed to the archaeological revival of antiquity, and the profile format intentionally evoked the authority of Roman imperial portraiture. The work exemplifies the humanist belief that portraiture could bestow a kind of immortality.

Mantegna renders the profile with lapidary precision reminiscent of a Roman coin or cameo, with sharp, clean contours and the hard, smooth surface quality that makes his portraits seem carved from stone.