Portrait of Domenico Paul, Italy, 1798

An Italian portrait of Domenico, son of the late Battista Paul, painted at the age of fifty-three, 1798. The half-length composition shows the sitter before a dark, undefined ground, dressed in a dark coat over a coral-red waistcoat with a white lace jabot, his long hair worn loose and swept back in the fashion of the period. He holds a quill pen poised over a partially inscribed paper, a convention typically used to denote a man of letters, a notary, or a local official.

The painted inscription at upper left reads “Domenico, di fu Batista Paul; d’anni 53, il anno 1798” — “Domenico, son of the late Battista Paul; aged 53, the year 1798” — a formula common to Italian provincial portraiture of the period, recording the sitter’s name, parentage, age, and the year the work was painted.