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Notes
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This portrait is probably by Gentile Bellini, though we can‘t be sure. It’s unusual among his portraits – we don’t know the identity of the sitter and most of Gentile’s surviving portraits are of well-known figures. It was once thought to be the mathematician Girolamo Malatini because he holds a pair of dividers (a compass). Malatini is said to have taught Giovanni Bellini, Gentile’s brother, and Carpaccio, another Venetian painter, how to incorporate theories of perspective into their paintings. But it was not only mathematicians who used compasses – artists and architects, among other professionals, did too. An alternative suggestion is that Gentile has painted Giovanni. Like many of Gentile’s portraits, the background is very dark so that the sitter’s face stands out, as do his hands.
Title
A Man with a Pair of Dividers (?)
Date
about 1500
Medium
Oil on canvas
Measurements
H 69.2 x W 59.1 cm
Accession number
NG1213
Acquisition method
Bought, 1886
Work type
Painting
