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The proud bearing, alert but guarded expression of the sitter, and the firm resolve evident in the way his right hand grasps his cloak read liek a catalogue of Florentine traits.
With his intense gaze he seems to fix the viewer, already calculating our potential as rival in business.
This is the earliest surviving Italian portrait to break with the profile forma, with its limited prospect of character analysis, and adopt the three-quarter view already familiar in Flemish painting.
However, in characteristic fashion, the sold, assertive forms of Castagno's portrait are based on the study of sculptural busts ratehr than Flemish painting, and they epitomise the Florentine interest in the material aspect of the sitter and the world he lives in.
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