Portrait of a young man 1526

Lorenzo Lotto painted this oil on panel portrait of a young man, sometime in the first half of the 16th century. It’s a fine example of the kind of work that arose from the institutions of Renaissance humanism. In 16th century Italy, portraits were more than just likenesses. This man’s dark clothing and hat signal an allegiance to the fashions of the Venetian Republic. The open window onto the landscape speaks to an openness to new horizons and a desire to see beyond the confines of the city. The draped red cloth might be a curtain, but also a symbol of status. How does this image negotiate the demands of fashion and the display of status? To answer that we might look at sumptuary laws in the Venetian Republic and the importance of color and cloth to the display of wealth and status. Such approaches remind us that artworks such as this emerge from a complex web of social and institutional practices.