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Portrait of Roberto Castiglione

Unknown

1604

unspecified

From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art

Baroque Early Baroque Italian Baroque Portrait

Dominant colour

Portrait of Roberto Castiglione is a 1604 unspecified by Unknown, a Baroque work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.

Who painted this?: Unknown
When & what style?: 1604 · Baroque
Where can I see it?: Cleveland Museum of Art

About this work

A man in a dark coat sits stiffly, one gloved hand resting on a table. His face is pale, his expression serious. A red shield with a lion and castle hangs behind him. This isn’t just any portrait—it’s of Roberto Castiglione, a 13th-century official painted *centuries* after his death. The artist included his family crest, a detail that ties the painting to a real person from history, not just a made-up face. If you like how this portrait mixes history and art, look up more paintings from Italy, Cremona.

The story of this work

Overview

The inscription on the bottom of this painting identifies the sitter of this commemorative portrait as Roberto Castiglione, a magistrate and imperial vicar for the Spanish empire in the 1200s. His identity is further supported by the coat of arms in the upper left. A red shield ornamented by a lion holding a castle with three towers in his right paw, the crest belongs to the Castiglione family, which was primarily based in Milan, but had branches in Cremona as well. His gloved left hand holds a prayer book and the glove for his bare right hand, which holds back the fur trim of his mantle.

Read the full account in the museum source.