Portrait of a Man 1565

Giambattista Moroni painted this Portrait of a Man in oil on canvas. It is currently held in the Rijksmuseum. Looking at the man’s clothing, we can see how the image creates meaning through visual codes and historical associations. The dark clothes are typical of portraits of this period. Black dye was expensive at the time, so wearing black showed the sitter’s wealth and status. But the sitter is also holding a letter in his hand, suggesting that he is a man of letters, and the portrait may be an assertion of his humanist learning. Moroni was working in Italy in a period when the patronage of the church was on the wane. Increasingly, artists depended on the support of wealthy individuals. The public role of art was in transition. To understand this period better, we can look at letters, diaries, and other documents of the time. The meaning of art is always contingent on its social and institutional context.