Jacopo Robusti known as Tintoretto (Venice, 1518 - 1594) PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN oil on canvas, cm 117x92 inscribed at right "AŇO AETATIS/ SVAE XXXIII/1563" PORTRAIT OF A GENTLEMAN oil on canvas, cm 117x92 inscribed at the right "AŇO AETATIS/ SVAE XXXIII/1563" Bibliography P. Rossi, Jacopo Tintoretto. The Portraits, 1969, p. 74; P. Rossi, Tintoretto. I ritratti, Milan 1974, cat. 83, p. 95, ill. 129, p. 180. This handsome portrait, all played out in a fascinating balance of dark and golden tones-a hallmark of the Venetian master-depicts a man with thick black hair and beard, and a barely noticeable mustache, still mindful of his youthful age, which also shines through the slight blush on his cheeks. The man is depicted in clothes of restrained elegance, which is only fleetingly illuminated in the hint of a white shirt over the fur that wraps the shoulders and falls over the black robe. The sleeves barely allow a glimpse of two svelte white lines on the wrists; the left hand clutches the newly drawn gloves. These elements bring us back to the protagonist of this work, namely the gentleman's face, the slightly haughty gaze, the slightly wavy hair. The canvas also bears on the right side an indication of his age: ANO AETATIS/ SVAE XXXIII/1563. A forty-three-year-old gentleman, then, as Rossi also mentions in his monograph on Tintoretto's portraits. The three-quarter pose, the gaze that finally emerges from the silent but tumultuous chiaroscuro play and furthermore the position of the arms and hands place the painting in the corpus of variations on this theme executed by Robusti: interesting comparisons can be found in the youthful portraits of 1545-46, such as the "Portrait of a Gentleman" at Chatsworth House, but also in the slightly later ones (1548-49) such as the "Portrait of a Gentleman in Fur" (at auction at Christie's in 1927), the "Portrait of Jacopo Sansovino" (Cuball Collection), the "Portrait of a Gentleman" attributed to Tintoretto by Phillips in 1897, and finally the "Portrait of a Gentleman" in the National Gallery of Ireland from 1555.