Dosso Dossi
Italian painter, ca. 1486-1542
Standard Bearer
About 1519
Oil on canvas
30 3/4 x 20 1/4 inches (78.10 x 51.44 centimeters)
Samuel H. Kress Collection
1960.013.000 KB

Painted in the humanist court of Duke Alfonzo d'Este, in the Northern Italian city of Ferrara, this work by Dosso Dossi shows a secular subject, a German or Swiss mercenary, called a Landsknecht. Dosso may have based this on an imported German print, since it is an unusual subject for an Italian painting. Because this is an oil painting, Dosso could easily change it after he had begun; x-rays of The Standard Bearer show that the soldier's face was originally painted facing forward.