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5 Portrait of a Man, Aged Thirty-Two

In the sixteenth century, many northern European artists traveled across the Alps to Italy in order to hone their artistic skills. One such artist was the Dutch painter Jan van Scorel. He departed for Italy in 1518 and, after visiting Venice and Rome, returned to Utrecht in 1524, where he became famous for his religious paintings and portraits that integrated Italian artistic influences with northern traditions. This work was painted in 1521 while Scorel was living in Venice. The three-quarter view format, in which the subject is posed at an angle to the viewer, and the landscape in the background were elements that had originated in Northern Europe before spreading to Italy, but the influence of Venetian painting can also be clearly seen in the relatively close-up composition and the softer rendering of the hair and beard.