ITALO-FLEMISH SCHOOL, 17TH CENTURY | A portrait of a gentleman standing beside a framed portrait of a lady, with his right hand on his hip and a letter and gloves resting on a table

Anonymous sale ('The Property of a Gentleman'), New York, Sotheby's, 6 June 2013, lot 16.

A. Acconci and A. Zuccari, Scipione Pulzone. Da Gaeta a Roma alle Corti europee, Rome 2013, p. 286, reproduced fig. 2 (as anonymous);

C. Blümle and B. Wismer, Hinter dem Vorhang, exh. cat., Düsseldorf 2016, reproduced p. 75 (as anonymous, early 17th century).

The tradition of including a portrait within a portrait is common in betrothal paintings, or in its use as a device to allude to a member of the family who is recently deceased, in this case perhaps the sitter's wife.

This fascinating double portrait contains both Flemish and Italian elements, and is simultaneously reminiscent of paintings by Frans Pourbus and of North Italian portraiture. The type of frame depicted, called a cassetta, originated in Tuscany in the 15th century but later became very popular throughout Northern Europe.