''Portrait of a Gentleman'' is a 1513

oil on wood A panel painting is a painting made on a flat panel of wood, either a single piece or a number of pieces joined together. Until canvas became the more popular support medium in the 16th century, panel painting was the normal method, when not paint ...

panel by

Altobello Melone Altobello Melone ( 1490–1491 – before 3 May 1543) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. Biography Melone was born in Cremona. His work merges Lombard and Mannerist styles. In Cremona, he encountered the elder Girolamo Romanino. He ...

. It is kept in the

Accademia Carrara The Accademia Carrara, (), officially Accademia Carrara di Belle Arti di Bergamo, is an art gallery and an academy of fine arts in Bergamo, in Lombardy in northern Italy. The art gallery was established in about 1780 by , a Bergamasco collect ...

Bergamo Bergamo (; lmo, Bèrghem ; from the proto- Germanic elements *''berg +*heim'', the "mountain home") is a city in the alpine Lombardy region of northern Italy, approximately northeast of Milan, and about from Switzerland, the alpine lakes Como ...

. It is one of the most famous paintings from the collection of Count

Guglielmo Lochis Count Guglielmo Lochis (1789 – 25 July 1859) was an Italian nobleman, politician, art collector and art connoisseur. Born in Mozzo into a family which had been active in Bergamo since the 16th century and which had held the title of count sinc ...

, where for it was thought to be a portrait of

Cesare Borgia Cesare Borgia (; ca-valencia, Cèsar Borja ; es, link=no, César Borja ; 13 September 1475 – 12 March 1507) was an Italian ex- cardinal and '' condottiero'' (mercenary leader) of Aragonese (Spanish) origin, whose fight for power was a major ...

, son of

Pope Alexander VI Pope Alexander VI ( it, Alessandro VI, va, Alexandre VI, es, Alejandro VI; born Rodrigo de Borja; ca-valencia, Roderic Llançol i de Borja ; es, Rodrigo Lanzol y de Borja, lang ; 1431 – 18 August 1503) was head of the Catholic Churc ...

. The attribution to Altobello Melone was first made in 1871. It was confirmed in 1955 by Mina Gregori, who compared the portrait in eccentric style to Melone's ''The road to Emmaus''. Some three hundred years after the portrait was painted, the

Borgia family The House of Borgia ( , ; Spanish language, Spanish and an, Borja ; ca-valencia, Borja ) was an Italian-Aragonese Spanish noble family, which rose to prominence during the Italian Renaissance. They were from Valencia, the surname being a Topony ...

ordered a copy from

Pelagio Palagi Pelagio Palagi (25 May 1775 – 6 March 1860) was an Italian painter, sculptor and interior decorator. Biography Early life Pelagi was born in Bologna. Starting at a very young age the study of perspective, architecture, figurative and po ...

, and the copy was discussed at some length by Antoine-Claude Pasquin.

References

{{reflist 1513 paintings Cultural depictions of Cesare Borgia Collections of the Accademia Carrara