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Shown from the waist up on the far side of a table or ledge, a man with a pale, olive complexion rests his arm alongside a small white dog lying on the ledge in this vertical portrait painting. The scene has an overall honey-colored hue over a palette dominated by blacks, olive green, and gold-tinged ivory white. To our right in the composition, the man’s body is angled to our left and he looks out at us from the corners of his dark eyes. He has a straight nose and high cheekbones. A mustache and trimmed beard frame his pink lips, which curve slightly up at the corners. His brown hair is brushed back from a pointed widow’s peak on his forehead, and it blends into the dark olive-green curtain hanging behind him. The high corners of his black robe are connected with a gold chain, and the robe comes to a V over a white shirt. His left hand, on our right, rests on the ledge, near the bottom of the composition. A small dog with pointed ears and shaggy, ivory-white fur is tucked behind the man’s arm, its left paw between the man’s thumb and forefinger. A shaft of black and gold indicate the hilt of a sword, presumably hung from the man’s waist. To our left, a dusty rose-pink book stands on a brown box. Upon closer inspection, an inscription has been painted in black on the upper right corner of the box: “VICO LO OPUS AETA.” Beyond the book, a view of a landscape through an open window fills the upper left quadrant of the composition. A person wearing a long brown robe stands on a path that zigzags into the distance, past dark green bushes and trees. Ice-blue, jagged mountains line the horizon. The sky above the mountains is parchment white and bands of slate-blue clouds fill in the top of our view.

Cariani

Portrait of a Man with a Dog, c. 1520

Not on View

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 66.7 x 53.2 cm (26 1/4 x 20 15/16 in.)

framed: 94.6 x 80.6 x 6.3 cm (37 1/4 x 31 3/4 x 2 1/2 in.)

Credit Line

Gift of Samuel L. Fuller

Accession Number

1950.11.2

Artists / Makers

Cariani (artist) Venetian, 1485/1490 - 1547 or after

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Inscription

lower left on parapet: ...VICO / ...LO / OPVS / ...AETA...

Provenance

(Ehrich Galleries, New York).[1] Samuel L. Fuller [1875-1963], New York; gift 1950 to NGA.

[1] A photograph of the painting in NGA Photographic Archives is labelled "From Ehrich Gallery Collection".

Associated Names

Ehrich Galleries
Fuller, Samuel L.

Exhibition History

1967: The Art of Venice: An Exhibition of Five Works of Venetian Masters on extended loan from The Lending Collection of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., Tampa Bay Art Center, University of Tampa, Florida, 1967-1969, p. 5, repro.

1969: Loan for display with permanent collection, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1969-1970.

Bibliography

1965: Summary Catalogue of European Paintings and Sculpture. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1965: 23.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 16, repro.

1972: Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections. Cambridge, MA, 1972: 45, 647.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 54, repro.

1979: Shapley, Fern Rusk. Catalogue of the Italian Paintings. 2 vols. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1979: 1:115; 2:pl. 78.

1985: European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 75, repro.

2006: Frank, Mary Engel. “'Donne attempate': Women of a Certain Age in Sixteenth-Century Venetian Art.” 2 vols. Ph.D. diss., Princeton University, 2006: 1: 282, 319, fig. 215.