Self-Portrait as Abbot of the Accademia della Val di Blenio

Giovan Paolo Lomazzo

Download hi-res image TITLE Self-Portrait as Abbot of the Accademia della Val di Blenio
AUTHOR Giovan Paolo Lomazzo
DATE c. 1568
OBJECT TYPE AND MATERIAL Oil on canvas
DIMENSIONS cm 56 x 44
INVENTORY 112
ROOM XII
Work on display

Lomazzo sports a hat with vine and laurel leaves alluding to wine (also echoed in the medallion) and to poetic glory. The ivy-covered staff is also an attribute of Bacchus, while the compass indicates his career as a painter and the words recall his post as Abbot of the Accademia della Val di Blenio. By 1560 the academy comprised some of Milan’s leading artists, who would assemble disguised as porters from Ticino, using local dialect and costumes with grotesque, anticlassical intent.