Michele Tosini, called Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio

PORTRAIT OF A YOUNG BOY, BUST LENGTH, FACING LEFT, DRESSED IN A MAROON DOUBLET AND CAP

FLORENCE 1503 - 1577

oil on panel
7 3/4 by 6 1/8 in.; 19.6 by 15.3 cm.

Provenance:
This intimate Portrait of a Young Boy is a newly discovered work by the Florentine painter, Michele Tosini, known as Michele di Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio. The painting can be compared to the artist's half-length Portrait of a Young Man with a Letter, in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence (inv. no. 1581) which was formerly considered to be Salviati but now given to Tosini.1

The present likeness is starkly lit from upper left and the artist captures his earnest young sitter with remarkable directness and immediacy. Another similarly composed bust length Portrait of Young Man sold in these rooms in 1974 with an attribution to Salviati, but was later attributed by Federico Zeri to Tosini.2 While the present portrait is of higher quality, the Portrait of a Young Man is lit in the same bright manner from left, casting a shadow across the sitter's left cheek and chin and leaving the left hand section of the background in darkness.

We are grateful to Carlo Falciani for suggesting the attribution on the basis of photographs.

1. Private written communication, dated 21 November 2015; L. Mortari, Francesco Salviati, Rome 1992, p. 143, cat. no. 104, reproduced.
2. Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 10 July 1974, lot 31; Ibid., p. 158, cat. no. 170, reproduced.