Portrait of an Architect

Description This richly dressed young nobleman holding a compass over a plan of a fortification remains unidentified. Pulzone's portraits are characterized by careful attention to the ornaments and fabrics of aristocratic attire, making him very popular as a portraitist of the nobility intent on appropriate self-representation as a signal of status. The ornament featuring a flower with swirling leaves embroidered in gold with a seed pearl stitched at the center bears comparison with a type of dress ornament represented by Walters 44.444. In this regard, Pulzone's Portrait of a Lady (37.605) of about the same date provides a further comparison.

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 466]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902