Portrait of a young man, half-length, in black with a wide ruff, holding a letter in his right hand

Painted toward the end of the 1570s, this portrait exemplifies the restrained elegance and psychological sensitivity that distinguished Bartolomeo Passerotti as one of the leading portraitists in late sixteenth-century Bologna. The sitter, an unidentified young man, is shown half-length against a warm maroon ground, dressed in sober black with a crisp white ruff. He holds a folded letter inscribed ‘Bologna’ in his right hand—a motif that recurs throughout Passerotti’s portraiture as a sign of literacy, office, and civic identity.

It was first published by Giovanna Poletti (loc. cit.) and subsequently by Angela Ghirardi who dates the portrait to the end of the 1570s (A. Ghirardi, 1990, loc. cit.). Ghirardi notes the work's relationship to the full-length Portrait of a Gentleman with Letter and Two Dogs (Providence, Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design), observing similarities in the gesture and overall compositional arrangement.

Passerotti's achievement in portraiture was recognized by his contemporaries, and his reputation extended to the highest levels of ecclesiastical patronage: he was summoned to paint Pope Pius V Ghislieri circa 1566 (Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery) and Pope Gregory XIII Boncompagni circa 1572-73 (Gotha, Museen der Stadt). Yet it was in his depictions of scholars, musicians, scientists, and collectors that Passerotti found his most characteristic expression. His portraits of this period reveal an artist keenly attentive to the intellectual and social milieu of Counter-Reformation Bologna, where his studio near the Due Torri became a gathering place for antiquarians and naturalists, including the celebrated scientist Ulisse Aldrovandi.