Getty Museum
Portrait of a Man with a Sheet of Music
Creator
Domenico FettiItalian Artist · 1589–1623
All works by this person →By the early 1600s, Venetian art had declined and it took a native of Mantua, Domenico Fetti, to reinvigorate it. Fetti was greatly influenced by Peter Paul Rubens, whose transparent red and blue flesh tones he adopted, German expatriate landscapist Adam Elsheimer, and those followers of Caravaggio who explored Venice's rich color. Fetti became Mantua's court painter in 1613. There he studied Giul
More on Getty ULAN- Date
- about 1620
- Medium
- Oil on canvas
- Culture
- Italian
- Department
- Paintings
- Institution
- Getty Museum
Facing the viewer, a bearded man in theatrical clothing poses in front of a loosely painted, classicizing backdrop. He holds a sheet of music in his left hand and with his right hand points at an overturned bowl in the foreground, a *vanitas* symbol that refers to the emptiness of material possessions. Intense eyes set in an expressive face watch the viewer while he gestures. In the lower right-hand corner, two young men, perhaps admirers, watch with interest. The bearded man may have been a singer or actor shown in a role from a play; his informality also suggests that he may have been a friend of the artist, Domenico Fetti.
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