Retrato de un hombre

This was painted by a young Greek far from home. Domenikos Theotokopoulos, later called El Greco, was born on Crete, trained in the Byzantine icon tradition, then went to Venice and soaked up the colour of Titian. Around 1570 he arrived in Rome, where the Farnese family drew him into their circle of scholars, and he made this portrait there. It is pure Venice in its warm colour and soft light, with none of the stretched, flame-like figures of his later Spanish years. Look at the arm of the chair. A chalk-holder rests on it beside a book with red and white markers, the tools of an artist, which is very likely what this calm, watchful man was.