Bartolomeo Passarotti

This portrait is believed to depict 23-year-old Marchese Hercolani, a nobleman from Bologna, Italy. Posing with his Persian greyhounds, he holds a letter from an admirer that expresses gratitude to his “magnificent excellency.” His high social position is proclaimed by his clothing, which includes a padded doublet and slashed breeches over stockings tied with silk garters. He personifies the ideal courtier, described in 1528 by Italian writer Baldassare Castiglione as a man who-in addition to being educated in poetry, philosophy, and other humanities subjects-possessed physical beauty, was skilled in the use of arms, and excelled as a horseman and hunter.