Cleveland Museum of Art

Portrait of a Man

Tanzio da Varallo

Date

c. 1620

Medium

oil on canvas

Culture

Italy, 17th century

Department

European Painting and Sculpture

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This portrait of an unknown man includes a detailed representation of a rapier, a sword worn with civilian dress and used in duels. On the basis of style, the rapier in this painting belonged to a distinctive group of sword hilts decorated between about 1570 and 1600. It was probably made in northern Italy.The son of a Piedmontese architect, Tanzio spent most of his life in northern Italy, but worked briefly in Rome and southern Italy, mainly Naples. These trips brought him under the influence of Caravaggio, whose dramatic realism Tanzio integrated into his own elegant, decorative style. Dashing accessories enliven this portrait, including a rapier with an elegantly spiraling guard, produced exclusively in North Italy between 1570 and 1600.

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