Portrait of Lorenzo Cybo

Parmigianino was barely twenty when he painted this in 1523, a prodigy who would soon leave his native Parma for Rome. His sitter, Lorenzo Cybo, was a nephew of the late Pope Leo the Tenth and had just been made captain of the pope's Swiss Guard, which is almost certainly why the portrait was made, and why the date is written at the bottom. Cybo holds a dagger and an enormous two-handed sword, so heavy that a small boy has to prop up its point at the edge of the picture. Off to the side sits a gaming table with dice and counters, a hint that the young captain's duties left plenty of room for pleasure. He wears his finery lightly, one hand on his hip, sizing you up.