Portrait of a Nobleman, His Hand on a Sword

Around 1540 Tintoretto was in his early twenties, trying to make a name in a Venice where Titian set the standard for portraits of men of rank. This bearded sitter in black, one hand closed on the hilt of his sword and the other resting on a stone column base, is called by the Louvre simply a gentleman. Before 1662 the canvas belonged to Everhard Jabach, a Cologne-born banker and collector living in Paris, who sold it to Louis XIV that year, and the royal inventory of 1683 listed it simply as in the manner of Titian. Today the Louvre gives it to Tintoretto, and in 2018 it appeared in a Paris exhibition devoted to his early years. It hangs in room 711, the Salle des États, the hall where the Mona Lisa is displayed.