# Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale, Count of Fontanellato [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [PARMIGIANINO]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Oil on panel, 109 x 81 cm ## Commentary Parmigianino's art offered the Parmesan aristocracy extraordinary opportunities for self-promotion. In his portrait of Gian Galeazzo Sanvitale, Count of Fontanellato, whose villa Parmigianino brightened with inspired variations on Correggio's frescoes in the Camera di San Paolo, the sitter's self-confidence is extraordinary. The count stares out at the viewer, calmly daring anyone to challenge his innate physical and intellectual superiority. In his right hand he displays a bronze medal marked with the mysterious ciphers "7" and "2", which must have had significance for him and his close circle of friends, but whose inscrutability serves to distance him from the rest of humanity. ## Related artworks - [An eagle]() - [An Evangelist or a Prophet]() - [Circe and the Companions of Ulysses]() - [Cupid]() - [Decoration of the under-arch above the main altar]() - [Deposition]() - [Diana and Actaeon]() - [Diana and Actaeon]() - [Diana and Actaeon]() - [Diana and Actaeon]() - [Diana and Actaeon]() - [Diana and Actaeon]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()