Self-portrait

Giovanni Battista Salvi, known as Sassoferrato after his home town in the Marche, made his name with small, serene images of the Madonna, painted in a smooth, tender style that looked back a full century to Raphael while Baroque drama roared on all around him. Collectors loved them and still do. Here he turns that same steady hand on himself. There is no theatre in it, only a direct look and careful modelling. The dating is debated, with proposals ranging from the 1640s to the 1660s, but the man we meet is the quiet craftsman his religious pictures suggest. The portrait reached the Medici by way of a gift from Cardinal Chigi, who presented it to Grand Duke Cosimo III in 1683, two years before the painter died.