Portrait of a Man

Description The glittering embroidery on the sitter's ermine-trimmed jacket recalls 17th-century Polish uniforms and suggests that he may have been a member of a visiting delegation to Rome. Born and trained in Genoa, Baciccio, once in Rome, became a protégé of the great sculptor and architect Gian Lorenzo Bernini, who helped him obtain commissions. The open, upturned hand is a gesture associated with conversation, in this case, presumably with the viewer. This, along with the way the sitter leans slightly to one side, gives the portrait a sense of spontaneity that recalls Bernini's lively style. For more information on this portrait, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 325, p. 452.

Conservation

Date	Description	Narrative
10/16/1984	Examination	examined for loan

Exhibitions

• Baroque Portraiture in Italy. The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota. 1984-1985.

Provenance Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 790, as Louis M. van Loo]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.

Credit Acquired by Henry Walters with the Massarenti Collection, 1902