Probably by Gentile Bellini, 'A Man with a Pair of Dividers (?)', about 1500

This portrait is probably by Gentile Bellini, though we can‘t be sure. It is unusual among his portraits as we do not know the identity of the man portrayed; most of Gentile’s surviving portraits are of well-known figures.

Gentile was Venice’s official portraitist in all but name: from 1474 he was commissioned to continue the tradition of painting the portrait of each doge (ruler of Venice) to decorate the Sala del Consiglio (council room) in the Doge’s Palace. He also painted the only known portrait of Caterina Cornaro, Queen of Cyprus (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest). She was a Venetian noblewoman and figurehead of the city’s dominion over the island.

The sitter was once thought to be a mathematician because he holds a pair of dividers (a compass). This led to the idea that it was a portrait of a man called Girolamo Malatini, who was probably responsible for teaching Giovanni Bellini, Gentile’s brother, and Carpaccio, another Venetian painter, how to incorporate theories of perspective into their paintings. But it was not only mathematicians who used compasses – artists and architects, among other professionals, did too. An alternative suggestion is that Gentile has painted Giovanni. The problem is unresolved, especially as it’s not certain that Gentile actually made this work and because the unusual, but elaborate, metal implement could be a different device altogether.

Like many of Gentile’s portraits, the background is very dark so that the sitter’s face stands out, as do his hands. Unlike the portraits of doges, the man is shown frontally. He doesn’t look at us but his face is turning to his left rather than to the right, as was more usual. This style of portraiture was popular in Venice and is reminiscent of Antonello’s portraits of the previous decade. Gentile’s approach here is, however, far softer: the contours and outlines are not sharply defined, an effect that is partly achieved by painting on canvas rather than on panel as Antonello did. The lack of detail is unusual in a work by Gentile, who usually took great pains to express the qualities of varying surfaces in paint and enjoyed painting different kinds of materials and jewels.

The simplicity of this image might suggest a more humble and familiar sitter – his brother, for example. We can't be sure, but the emphasis on the man’s hands – his right hand is more expressive than his face, an innovation that came from the work of Netherlandish painters like Hans Memling – and the presence of the dividers might suggest someone who placed a value on the creative force of his hands in his work.