Cristofano dell’Altissimo – Portrait of Romulus, Founder of Rome (61 × 47 cm), 16th century. A bust-length profile facing left against a dark neutral background; an inscription in gold Roman capitals, “ROMVLO RE DI ROMA”, explicitly identifies the figure as Romulus, the legendary founder of Rome. A man with a short dark beard is crowned with a laurel wreath; a red tunic and a fur draped over his shoulders (an allusion to the Capitoline Wolf) underscore his antique, heroic status. The face is modeled with soft chiaroscuro transitions, without individuating detail – this is not a portrait but an idealized uomo illustre type. The profile presentation of the head, the austere graphic quality of the inscription, and the restrained palette align the work with the central Italian tradition of the late 15th-early 16th century and with the genre of decorative series of “illustrious men” for palazzo interiors. The painting is marked by crisp silhouetting, a noble simplicity of design, and a convincing archaizing stylization.

In his expert opinion, Professor Marco Tanzi of the University of Salento states that the author of the portrait is Cristofano dell’Altissimo, a Florentine portraitist and pupil of Pontormo and Agnolo Bronzino. After the death of the humanist Paolo Giovio, Cosimo I de’ Medici sent the artist to Como to copy portraits from his famous collection (now largely lost). Today most of the copies made by dell’Altissimo hang in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Size: 61 x 47 cm.