フランチェスコ・サセッティとその息子テオドーロ

Francesco Sassetti ran the Medici bank's branches in Lyon, Geneva and Avignon and was one of Lorenzo the Magnificent's most trusted managers. Ghirlandaio painted him around 1488 with his small son Teodoro, and the pairing carries a quiet grief. The boy had an elder brother, also named Teodoro, who had died shortly before, so this second son was given the same name, and the picture marks both the loss and the family's continuation. The father faces us straight on, lined and thoughtful, while the child is shown in pure profile, the convention reserved for the young and the pure. Through the window behind them stands an oratory that Sassetti had built in Geneva, the city where much of his fortune was made.