Portrait of a Seated Man Holding a Book

1561 · Private collection

portrait

The identity of the elegantly dressed sitter is not known. The careful handling of light as it plays off of the cheeks and skin of the sitter are entirely characteristic of Cavalori and the group of artists who, in the 1560s, helped define a new mode of expression in Mannerist portraiture.

About the Artist

Mirabello Cavalori

1535 – 1572

Mirabello d'Antonio di Pacino Cavalori (Mirabello di Salincorno), Italian painter. He was one of the founders of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence and worked on the academy's first major projects: the decorations for Michelangelo 's funeral in S Lorenzo (1564) and for Duke Francesco I de' Medici's wedding (1565) to Joanna of Austria. For Michelangelo's catafalque he collaborated with Girolamo Macchietti on a grisaille painting of Lorenzo de' Medici Receiving Michelangelo (untraced); for the Arch of Religion, a temporary structure erected along the route of Francesco I's wedding procession, Cavalori painted in monochrome St Francis Founding the Retreat at Vernia and Receiving the Stigmata (untraced). Vasari employed Cavalori in the decoration of the Studiolo of Francesco I in the Palazzo Vecchio, for which he produced The Wool factory. His paintings on the Sacrifice of Lavinia and Blessing of Isaac are also in the Palazzo Vecchio.

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