Giovanni Battista Moroni

Giovanni Battista Moroni painted portraits of remarkable honesty. His sitters, from nobles and clergy to scholars, lawyers and a tailor, are shown life size, calm and direct, against plain grey backgrounds, with close attention to their clothes and the tools of their trade.

He was born in Albino, near Bergamo, around 1520 and trained in Brescia with Moretto da Brescia, becoming his chief assistant. He worked in Brescia, Trento and Bergamo and returned to his home town, where he died in 1578. He also painted altarpieces, but it is his portraits that made his name. His best known work, The Tailor, is in the National Gallery in London, which holds one of the finest groups of his portraits.

Portrait of a Man Holding a Letter, known as The Lawyer, shows his typical approach: a thoughtful face, a plain setting and a single telling detail.