''Portrait of a Man with a Book'' is an oil on canvas painting by

Correggio Antonio Allegri da Correggio (August 1489 – 5 March 1534), usually known as just Correggio (, also , , ), was the foremost painter of the Parma school of the High Italian Renaissance, who was responsible for some of the most vigorous and sens ...

, dated to around 1522. It was bequeathed to the

Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco The Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco is an art gallery in the museum complex of the Castello Sforzesco in Milan, northern Italy. History Inaugurated in 1878, the gallery displays over 230 artworks, which include masterpieces by Titian, Andrea Ma ...

in Milan (where it now hangs) in 1945 by Lydia Caprara Morando Attendolo Bolognini. It is sometimes instead attributed to

Parmigianino Girolamo Francesco Maria Mazzola (11 January 150324 August 1540), also known as Francesco Mazzola or, more commonly, as Parmigianino (, , ; "the little one from Parma"), was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker active in Florence, Rome, B ...

but majority opinion is that it dates to Correggio's first mature period, which is supported by the fact that it was painted directly on top of the sketch, an informal technique suggesting it was made for a close friend of the artist. It shows a man in a black coat and black cap three-quarter-length against a wooded background, reading from a tiny book held in his right hand, argued by

Roberto Longhi Roberto Longhi (28 December 1890 – 3 June 1970) was an Italian academic, art historian, and curator. The main subjects of his studies were the painters Caravaggio and Piero della Francesca. Early life and career Longhi was born in December 18 ...

to be a book of hours''Edizione delle opere complete'', Roberto Longhi. Author, Roberto Longhi. Publisher, Sansoni, 1985 and by others such as Muzzi to be a ''Petrarchino'' (ie a miniature edition of

Petrarch Francesco Petrarca (; 20 July 1304 – 18/19 July 1374), commonly anglicized as Petrarch (), was a scholar and poet of early Renaissance Italy, and one of the earliest humanists. Petrarch's rediscovery of Cicero's letters is often credited ...

's ''

Il Canzoniere ''Il Canzoniere'' (; en, Song Book), also known as the ''Rime Sparse'' ( en, Scattered Rhymes), but originally titled ' ( en, Fragments of common things, that is ''Fragments composed in vernacular''), is a collection of poems by the Italian hum ...

''). If it is the latter, the bee in the background may refer to poems CXC and CCCXIX of the work.

References

Bibliography

* Giuseppe Adani, ''Correggio pittore universale'', Silvana Editoriale, Correggio 2007. * AA.VV., ''La Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco a Milano'', Skira, Milano 2005. {{Antonio da Correggio Portraits by Correggio category:Portraits of men category:1522 paintings category:16th-century portraits Books in art Paintings in the Sforza Castle