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

Technical Details
  • Title
    Self-Portrait as Abbot of the Accademia della Val di Blenio
  • Author
    Giovan Paolo Lomazzo
  • Year
    c. 1568
  • Dimensions
    cm 56 x 44
  • Inventory
    112
  • Room
    XII

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.

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