Ritratto d'uomo

We don't know this man's name, but his jewellery tells you almost everything about his world. Around his neck hang two gold chains, and on the longer one are two small badges. One shows the Virgin and Child on a crescent moon, the emblem of the Order of Our Lady of the Swan, which admitted only nobles. The other, a bird of prey and a fish facing each other, marks a society that staged jousting tournaments for noblemen in Swabia, in southern Germany. Baldung dated the picture 1514, and he had trained in the workshop of Albrecht Dürer. For a long time the panel even carried Dürer's famous monogram, until the London gallery found it was a later forgery, added to raise the price, and removed it. The panel was also trimmed along the bottom at some point, cutting off the sitter's hands.