Portrait of a gentleman, bust-length, traditionaly identified as a portrait of the artist

This study of a young man can be linked to a number of bust-length studies that Piazzetta produced. Often painted on a small scale, as is the present work, examples from this genre include the Portrait of young sculptor (Springfield Art Museum) and the Girl with a Donut(Private collection, United States). A Portrait of a man with a hat (formerly Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal), likewise identified as a self-portrait, engages the viewer in a similarly direct manner.

Engraved likenesses of Piazzetta dating from 1743 onward reveal a man of more chiseled features. Far closer to this painting, however, is an engraved self-portrait dated 1738. If this painting is a self-portrait, it would necessarily date to even earlier in the artist's career, which would suggest that it was executed at around the same time as the Springfield Young sculptor, i.e. circa 1732. Piazzetta, best known as a painter of sublime altarpieces, was also a prolific painter of genre scenes. These include bust-length figures such as the present one, sometimes produced as paintings but often as highly-finished drawings. In this he was followed by artists such as Domenico Maggiotto (1713-1794) and Giuseppe Angeli (1709-1798), to whom this painting may also be connected.