Domenico Ghirlandaio. Portrait of an old Man and a Boy (‘Portrait d'un vieillard et d'un jeune garçon’), ca. 1490 (Musée du Louvre, Paris).

Tempera on wood: 62 x 46 cm. Another portrait by Ghirlandaio (metalpoint drawing) of the same man is in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. Disfiguring scratches on the man’s forehead were removed during the 1996 restoration. One can imagine that children would be repelled by the man’s weathered face and his deformed nose. The delicate boy might have been a narrative invention, making this an even more dramatic portrait.

Visit > Musée du Louvre, Paris.
More > Domenico Ghirlandaio at Wikipedia.