Portrait of a young man, bust-length, in black with a black feathered cap

This intimate portrait was included in the major Niccolò dell’Abate exhibition curated by Sylvie Béguin and Francesca Piccinini in 2005. In the accompanying catalogue, Béguin recorded Daniele Benati’s shared opinion that the painting is an autograph work by the Emilian master – an attribution he has since reaffirmed, for which we are grateful (written communication, 8 April 2026).

The young sitter, dressed in black with the crisp collar of his white linen shirt visible and wearing an angled black cap adorned with a feather, faces the viewer directly. Béguin proposes that, given its small scale, the painting may have been a preliminary study for a larger portrait, or perhaps represents the likeness of a relative of the artist. She further notes the similarities with Parmigianino’s Portrait of a Man in the Galleria Borghese, Rome (inv. no. 085; fig. 1), a painting which was conceivably known to dell’Abate, particularly as Elisabetta Fadda believes the Borghese painting to have been executed in Bologna toward the end of Parmigianino’s stay there.