40
An Old Man and his Grandson

The artwork
date
1490
details
Tempera on wood
Early Renaissance
Portrait
62 cm x 46 cm
Links
- Image Copyright
- Wikipedia
- In the museum
"Learning never exhausts the mind."
Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi
Why we love it
One of Ghirlandaio’s best-known works, it is considered notable for its emotional poignancy. Its realism has been described as unique among the portraits of the Quattrocento.
Ghirlandaio has presented the portrait in a naturalistic and sympathetic fashion, at variance with physiognomic theory of the era, which maintained a connection between external appearances and internal truths.
An extraordinary feature of the painting is the deformity of the man’s nose, evidence of rhinophyma that recently led to the writing of several medical essays.
This work is one of Ghirlandaio’s best-known paintings for its emotional poignancy and realism.
This is just our small contribution, your curiosity can do the rest.