# Portrait of a Goldsmith in Three Positions [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [LOTTO, Lorenzo]() - Date: 1501-1550 - Technique: Oil on canvas, 52 x 79 cm ## Commentary Portrait of a Goldsmith in Three Positions c. 1530 Oil on canvas, 52 x 79 cm Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna The representation of the sitter from three different viewpoints makes this portrait highly unusual within Lotto's own work and within Italian Renaissance portraiture generally. The identity of the sitter is not known, nor is it clear why he is presented in three different views. According to one theory, the box placed prominently at the lower edge of the picture is a game of lottery, popular in the sixteenth century, and it was introduced by the painter as a play on his name, and hence the picture should be seen as a self-portrait. However, later it was realized that the foreground object is not a gambling game, but a case of rings, making it clear that the sitter was not the painter but a goldsmith. It is documented that Lotto had a particular interest in goldsmith work and jewelry and he had several goldsmiths among his closest friends. ## Related artworks - [Adoration of the Shepherds]() - [Allegory of Chastity detail\)]() - [Allegory of Chastity \("Maiden's Dream"\)]() - [Allegory of Virtue and Vice \(detail\)]() - [Allegory of Virtue and Vice]() - [Angel Annunciating]() - [Angel of the Annunciation]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation \(detail\)]() - [Annunciation]() - [Architect]() - [Assumption of the Virgin]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()