Portrait of a Man
by ROSSO FIORENTINO, Oil on wood, 51 x 40 cm
Early Renaissance portraits show subjects in profile. By the time Rosso made this uncompromising depiction, however, painters had largely freed their sitters in the name of naturalness. Here, the angle of body and head create a deliberately laboured torsion, typical of Rosso’s postures, even more difficult than Michelangelo’s.