Half-length, facing half to the right, his head turned to face the spectator, his right hand resting on his hip, compasses and a sheet of paper in his left; he wears a dark-grey coat lined with grey fur beneath which is a white shirt collar.

The sitter has been tentatively identified as Daniele Barbaro, who authored a commentary on Vitruvius with Palladio, as well as a book on perspective La Practica della Perspettiva (Venice, 1568). He was Venetian ambassador to England, 1549-51, Patriarch-Elect from 1550, and died in 1570. If this is a portrait of Daniele then it would have to represent his appearance in his mid twenties, c.1540, while he studied literature and moral philosophy at Padua. The paper and compasses in his hands could refer to an interest in mathematics as well as architecture; his dress and affected pose, which are common in portraits of young men of the sixteenth century, suggest that he belongs to the aristocracy rather than a profession. The sitter’s features are not in conflict with portraits of Daniele Barbaro as an older man by Titian (in Ottowa and Madrid) and by Veronese (in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam).