Self-portrait at the age of 57

In March 1848 the Milanese spent five days fighting the Austrian garrison out of the city, and in the same week Venice declared itself a republic again. Hayez painted this that year. He shows himself in black with a hood over his head, standing in front of a canvas that still has nothing on it, palette and brushes in one hand, the other hand bringing a brush toward the empty surface. The pose is taken from a self-portrait by the Venetian painter Palma il Giovane, who died in 1628 and whose picture hangs in this same building. On the back he wrote his name, the words Italian, of the city of Venice, and the date. He kept the painting in his studio for the rest of his life, and in 1883 it was given to the Brera academy.