Portrait of a Monk

This painting may have been the right wing of a diptych. It was suggested - not convincingly - that the Virgin and Child in the National Gallery, London (on loan from a private collection since 1993) which has approximately the same size, formed the left wing.

According to the inscription above the monk’s head, the sitter was forty years old in 1526. Although in the earlier literature he was described as a Benedictine monk, in fact there are no identifying clues as to his affiliation.

The signature above the monk’s left shoulder is a later addition.