Bernardino de' Conti (1450-c.1528)

Regarded as the work of Leonardo when in the Castelbarco Collection, the present attribution was first proposed by Morelli in 1892 and has been generally accepted by subsequent writers. Several signed profile portraits by this distinguished Milanese follower - and probably assistant - of Leonardo are known; stylistically closely related examples are in the Vatican (Francesco Sforza as a boy; Berenson, op. cit., 1968, pl. 1394), the Hôtel de Ville at Saint-Amand-Montrond (Charles d'Amboise; ibid., pl. 1401) and the Brooklyn Museum (Catellano Trivulzio; ibid., pl. 1404). These are dated 1496, 1500 and 1505 respectively, and the present picture is dated by Suida, loc. cit., within a similar time range, circa 1496-1508