Portrait d'un guerrier en armure

Painters and sculptors argued for much of the 16th century over which art was superior, and the sculptors had one strong card. You can walk around a statue and see every side, but a painting shows you only one. This picture, made around 1529, is a painter's answer. A man in armour turns toward us, and two mirrors set behind him at an angle catch his back and his profile, so a single canvas delivers him from three sides at once. The idea was credited to Giorgione, who according to the writer Vasari had staged just such a demonstration. The sitter was long called Gaston de Foix, a French commander, though there is no evidence for that, and it may even be the painter himself. The polished steel and red velvet let Savoldo scatter reflections everywhere.