Portrait of a warrior with a girl

The solemn layout of this monumental full-figure portrait, conceived in the fashion of official Venetian portraiture of the sixteenth century, launched by Titian and then continued by Tintoretto and Veronese, seems almost contradicted by the shrewd and witty expression on the face of the soldier portrayed. There is a clear contrast between the pompous appearance of this young man in armour, whose identity is still unknown, and the vivacity of his look and his smile. Another unusual feature is the presence next to him of a sweet little girl, dressed in an elegant luxurious gown, just like a lady, holding a flower in her right hand.

This painting dates back to 1578. At that period Francesco Bassano, who had moved to Venice only recently, had opened a workshop of his own, though he continued to work in close collaboration with his father Jacopo who was busy making paintings on canvas for the ceilings of the Doge’s Palace. At that time he was strongly influenced by the late painting of Titian, as is shown by the streaks of light on the breastplate of the warrior in the Civic Art Gallery, obtained with rapid touches of the brush, and the effects of light refraction on the child’s dress.

The effects of light, the reflections and the colour shading are the fruit of the encounter between the artist from Bassano, who was not used to working in the field of portraiture, with contemporary Venetian painting, as may be seen from the skilful construction of the work, clearly inspired by similar solutions by Veronese, based on the precise meeting of the perspective diagonals.