The present painting is a fine example of a particular brand of portraiture that Bartolomeo Passerotti developed in the 1570s – he depicted subjects in three-quarter-length, displaying their collections or other scholarly objects. Passerotti began his painting career in Rome, but returned to his native Bologna by 1560, and set up his own workshop where he took portrait commissions from important members of the clergy, including Pope Gregory XIII. Passerotti’s penchant for portraits such as this perhaps grew out of his own interest in collecting. The artist, with the help of his son, Tiburzio, established a famous museum to display his personal collection of anticaglie, which included fragments of ancient statues, drawings, engravings, paintings, medals, cameos and precious stones.

We are grateful to Daniele Benati for endorsing the attribution on the basis of photographs.