Portrait of Giovanni II Bentivoglio

Around 1492, when Lorenzo Costa signed this small panel, Giovanni II Bentivoglio was near the top of a very long run, and Costa painted him from life. He had held Bologna as its uncrowned lord since 1463, running a rich court for more than 40 years without ever taking a royal title. Costa gives him a heavy, sculptural presence, a thick neck and broad shoulders, the head set firmly on them, with the calm of a man used to being obeyed. What the panel cannot show is how fast it would end. In 1506 Pope Julius II marched on Bologna and drove the whole family out. The Bentivoglio went into exile and never governed the city again, and Giovanni died in Milan two years later.