Portrait of an Old Gentleman

Sitting in an imposing armchair seen in three-quarter view is a gentleman of about seventy, who appears to have just been interrupted in reading the tiny book in his hand. The modest nature of the presentation, the firmness of the figure blocked in against the neutral background by a beam of light, and the austere palette of uniform, subdued tonalities reveal formal analogies with prototypes by Daniele Crespi and Tanzio da Varallo (and through these, with the more severe Spanish portraiture).