A Man holding a Glove

On the back of this small oak panel the letters CR are burnt into the wood, the brand of King Charles I of England. The portrait reached him from Mantua and must have belonged to Duke Vincenzo II Gonzaga, whose family's famous collection Charles bought in 1627 and 1628. In London it hung in the Cabinet Room off the Privy Gallery in the Palace of Westminster. After the king's execution his collection was dispersed, and this portrait was recovered for his son, Charles II.

The man himself is unnamed. His beard, hat and clothes point to around 1530, shortly before Gossaert's death, and the fur lining his doublet and gown suggests he sat in winter. Gossaert painted that fur wet-in-wet and feathered the whites of the eyes softly into the irises.