Portrait of Febo da Brescia

Lorenzo Lotto is one of the few Renaissance painters whose account book survives, and in April 1543 he wrote into it a commission from Febo Bettignoli da Brescia, a nobleman living in Treviso, for portraits of himself and his wife. Lotto delivered them the following year. That ledger is why we still know the sitter's name when so many faces of the period have slipped into anonymity. Febo's wife, Laura da Pola, was painted as a companion piece, and the two hung side by side. Look at how close the top of his head sits to the frame. At some point the upper part of his canvas was trimmed, leaving him a little cramped in a portrait that was never meant to crowd him.